A visit from a television crew hopes to find some of historic Deadwood's secrets.

The A&E cable television show "Paranormal State" is scheduled to film an episode Friday and Saturday, Sept. 18 and 19, at the Historic Bullock Hotel.

The show will feature David Soma and his wife, Kathleen Lane, as Seth and Martha Bullock, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Madame Henrico and others who played a part in Deadwood's history.

Soma is a living historian who portrays Wild Bill Hickok and Seth Bullock. Soma gets into character so deeply that he says he feels he knows the men themselves.

When he decided to throw himself into the Wild Bill Hickok character, he spent the night at Hickok's grave in Deadwood. He is convinced that somehow, in some way, he spoke with Hickok.

"When I take on the Seth character, there is something at the core of it that says there is an expectation of good," Soma said.

He also says the Bullock Hotel is at the epicenter of paranormal activity in the Black Hills. The area is a center of power, he said.

The couple gives daily public guided tours of Deadwood and the hotel, as well as private tours. Lane leads "ghost" tours at the Historic Bullock Hotel as Martha Bullock. It's not unusual to feel the presence of an unseen entity while on the tour, she said.

As a child, Lane had polio. She became very ill. Last rites were performed, and believed to be dead, she was covered with a sheet, and the ambulance was called.

That is when Lane says she awoke after a near-death experience.

In 1980, she again had a near death experience after being hit by a truck.

"I was already tagged when I woke up," Lane said. "At first, all I could perceive was what I saw - a naked body."

As a child, she thought everyone saw and heard all of same things she did. It took her a while to realize and admit she had psychic abilities.

Martha Bullock also had polio.

"If we accept the idea,of the polio of Martha and Martha," Soma said, referring to Martha Bullock and his wife, who portrays her, "it could be responsible for opening a channel," Soma said.

Lane said she was sitting in the Bullock Hotel bar one hot day drinking lemonade when she saw Martha Bullock at a corner table.

"She was wearing a flowered skirt and a dark top - something that she is not wearing in her photos," Lane said.

Later, Lane was photographed standing at the bar wearing a black dress, but in the image the camera produced, she was wearing a flowered skirt and dark top, she said.

Lane says there are other spirits in the building, including a number of children who died of smallpox, and Bill and Tom, two men who mischieviously throw items, such as shampoo bottles, at visitors. The two worked in the blacksmith shop and lived in a tent, illegally, on top of the hardware store.

Other entities are heard and seen by visitors who have no connection to the hotel.

Lane and Soma both say they have special talents of communicating with the spirit world. They will assist the television crew in trying to make contact.

Lane said the television crew was not filming in Deadwood to remove any spirits, but to make contact and give physical validation to what is called paranormal activity.

The television crew will try to determine if spirits linger in Deadwood because it keeps its history alive through re-enactments, and if the spirits linger on to tell their stories to future generations.

Julia Sherman, the Bullock Hotel marketing and group sales manager, said she has had a brush or two with the spirits at the hotel. The radio in her office changes stations for no apparent reason, and once in the hotel basement, she heard a male voice calling her name.

"There were no men in the building at the time," she said.

A face appears in a digital camera she used during a hotel tour. Attempts to print the photo did not work, yet the image remained in the camera.

Sherman said filming would not interfere with the daily routine.

"I'm really excited about them coming here. They have most of the hotel rooms rented, so it won't cause much disruption," she said.