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The Louisiana Purchase - U.S. History for Kids!

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Lewis and Clark for Kids | Learn about the Louis and Clark expedition and the Louisiana Purchase

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First Transcontinental Railroad
History >>Westward Expansion

The First Transcontinental Railroad stretched from the East Coast of the United States to the West Coast. No longer would people travel in long wagon trains that took months to reachCalifornia. They could now travel faster, safer, and cheaper by train. In addition to people, things like mail, supplies, and trade goods could now be shipped across the country in just a few days. The railroad was built between 1863 and 1869.

Background

The first talk of a transcontinental railroad started around 1830. One of the first promoters of the railroad was a merchant named Asa Whitney. Asa tried hard for many years to get Congress to pass an act to build the railroad, but failed. However, in the 1860s Theodore Judah began to lobby for a railroad. He surveyed the Sierra Nevada Mountains and found a pass where the railroad could be built.

The Route

There were two main routes along which people wanted the first railroad to be built.

One route was called the "central route". It followed much the same route as the Oregon Trail. It would begin in Omaha, Nebraska and end up in Sacramento, California.

The other route was the "southern route". This route would stretch across Texas, New Mexico, and end up in Los Angeles, California.

The central route was eventually chosen by Congress.

Route of the First Transcontinental Railroad by Unknown

Pacific Railroad Act

In 1862President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act into law. The act said that there were two main railroad lines. The Central Pacific Railroad would come from California and the Union Pacific Railroad would come from the Midwest. The two railroads would meet somewhere in the middle.

The act gave the railroad companies land where they could build the railroad. It also paid them for each mile that they built. They were paid more money for miles of track built in themountains versus miles of track built on the flat plains.

Building the Railroad

Across the Continent
by Joseph Becker

Building the railroad was tough, hard work. Weather conditions were especially tough in the mountains during the winter. A lot of times the only way to travel over the mountains was to go through the mountains by blasting a tunnel. The Central Pacific Railroad had to blast a number of tunnels through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The longest tunnel built was 1659 feet long. It took a long time to build the tunnels. They were able to blast around one foot per day on average.

While the Central Pacific Railroad had to deal with mountains and snow, the Union Pacific Railroad was challenged byNative Americans raids. As the Native Americans came to realize the threat to their way of life that the "Iron Horse" was going to bring, they began to raid the railroad work sites. Also, a lot of the land that was "granted" to the railroad by the government was actually Native American land.

The Workers

The majority of the workers on the Union Pacific Railroad were Irish laborers, many who had served in both the Union and the Confederate armies. In Utah, a lot of the track was built by Mormon workers. Most of the Central Pacific Railroad was built by Chinese immigrants.

The Golden Spike

The two railroads finally met at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869. Leland Stanford, governor of California and president of the Central Pacific Railroad, drove in the last spike. This final spike was called the "Golden Spike" or "The Final Spike". You can see it today at Stanford University in California.

Driving the Golden Spike on 10th May, 1869
by American School

Interesting Facts about the First Transcontinental Railroad

The Pony Express traveled a similar route to the central route and helped to prove that the route was passable in winter.

The transcontinental railroad was also called the Pacific Railroad and the Overland Route.

The total length of the First Transcontinental Railroad was 1,776 miles.

The Central Pacific Railroad was controlled by four men called the "Big Four". They were Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker.

It was later, in November of 1869, when the Central Pacific connected San Francisco to Sacramento.

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Works Cited

History >>Westward Expansion

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Kids learn about the First Transcontinental Railroad. Fun facts about the route, the Union Pacific, and the Pacific Railroad Act.

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Introduction
The United States began building a transcontinental railroad in 1863 to connect the East Coast with the West Coast. Work began from both sides of the country, meeting at Promontory, Utah, in 1869. During those six years workers laid some 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) of track from Nebraska to California. Today various freight and passenger railroads still use sections of the line.

Up until the mid-1800s in the United States, people had few ways to get from the East Coast to the West Coast. They could travel by wagon train or stagecoach overland, by ship around South America, or by ship to Panama, where they took a railroad to that country's western coast and boarded a second ship to go back north to the United States. The journeys were long, expensive, and arduous. To ease the transportation difficulties, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act in 1862. This act set aside land and money to build a transcontinental railroad. It also appointed the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads to perform the work.

From The Days of a Man, Being Memories of a Naturalist, Teacher, and Minor Prophet of Democracy, by David Starr Jordan, Vol. 1, 1922

Railroads already connected many of the larger cities in the east by the time the decision was made to link the East and West Coasts. The Union Pacific Railroad was tasked with building westward from Omaha, Nebraska. The Central Pacific Railroad started from Sacramento, California, and worked eastward. A group of California businessmen later called the "Big Four"- Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Collis P. Huntington, and Mark Hopkins -controlled the Central Pacific. Thomas C. Durant oversaw the Union Pacific at the time.

Financing the Railroad
Through the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, the U.S. government provided the companies with financial support for the major undertaking. Each company received long-term loans in the form of government bonds, with the amount of the bonds tied to the amount of track laid. The government also awarded the companies sizable parcels of land along the entire length of their route, making the endeavor a competition between the sides. Each company had an incentive to work quickly to secure a longer route and thus more land and bonds. In 1864 a second Pacific Railway Act increased the financial incentives.

During the project Durant almost forced the Union Pacific into bankruptcy by siphoning money from the railroad for his personal gain. The illegal manipulation of contracts by the Union Pacific's construction and finance company, Crédit Mobilier, became known as the Crédit Mobilier Scandal. Several U.S. Congressmen were implicated in the scandal.

Building the Railroad
Although the Central Pacific began laying tracks in 1863, the American Civil War disrupted the work of the Union Pacific in the Midwest. That company was not able to begin construction until the war ended in 1865. The Union Pacific subsequently hired hundreds of former soldiers, as well as numerous Irish immigrants; a large Mormon contingent helped with the tracks in Utah. The workers were able to lay tracks quickly through Nebraska and Wyoming, encountering little difficulty over the flat terrain. However, they met with resistance from several Native American peoples, including the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Angered that the railroad was being built through their lands, Native Americans raided the railroad camps and destroyed the tracks and equipment. Those actions often led to violent skirmishes with the railroad workers.

Meanwhile, Crocker was in charge of hiring for the Central Pacific. He had difficulty finding men willing to do the strenuous work, and in 1865 he began hiring Chinese laborers. Within a few years most of his workforce was made up of Chinese, to whom he paid lower wages than white workers. The track-laying advancement was slow as the workers battled the snow and cold of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. In addition, they faced the danger of using nitroglycerin and other explosives to blast tunnels through the granite; some workers were killed in the explosions. Once past the mountains, the Central Pacific workers picked up speed. They had crossed Nevada by 1868.

By early 1869 the two railroads came close to meeting up with each other. In April officials designated Promontory Summit in northern Utah as the connection spot. On May 10 the two railroads met, with Stanford and Durant driving in the last ceremonial gold-plated spikes to join the tracks. Telegraph messages were sent out to all parts of the country announcing the feat. In total, the Central Pacific laid about 700 miles (1,125 kilometers) of track, while the Union Pacific finished some 1,100 miles (1,775 kilometers). The completed transcontinental railroad was variously called the Pacific Railroad or the Overland Route.

Effects of the Railroad
The transcontinental railroad reduced the travel time between the East and West Coasts from as long as six months to under two weeks. It not only allowed more ease of movement for people but also for freight. As goods were distributed more quickly, demand increased and the U.S. economy expanded. However, the transcontinental railroad helped to bring about the end of the traditional way of life for many Native Americans. The railroad divided Indian lands and brought settlers, who encroached on the lands even further. It also carried hunters, who decimated the immense herds of bison, on which Native Americans relied for food and clothing. The unrest caused fighting between the Native Americans and the U.S. military. Within a few decades of the completion of the railroad, most Native American camps were destroyed and the survivors moved to reservations.

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Introduction The United States began building a transcontinental railroad in 1863 to connect the East Coast with the West Coast. Work began from both sides of the country, meeting at Promontory, Utah, in 1869. During those six years workers laid some 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) of track from Nebraska to California.

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William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846 - January 10, 1917), known as " Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but he lived for several years in his father's hometown in modern-day Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, before the family returned to the Midwest and settled in the Kansas Territory.

One of the most famous and well-known figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill's legend began to spread when he was only 23. Shortly thereafter he started performing in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars. He founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1883, taking his large company on tours in the United States and, beginning in 1887, in Great Britain and continental Europe.

Early life and education

In Kansas, the family was frequently persecuted by pro-slavery supporters. Cody's father spent time away from home for his safety. His enemies learned of a planned visit to his family and plotted to kill him on the way. Bill, despite his youth and being ill at the time, rode thirty miles (48km) to warn his father. Isaac Cody went to Cleveland, Ohio, to organize a group of thirty families to bring back to Kansas, to add to the antislavery population. During his return trip, he caught a respiratory infection which, compounded by the lingering effects of his stabbing and complications from kidney disease, led to his death in April 1857.

After his death, the family suffered financially. At age 11, Bill took a job with a freight carrier as a "boy extra". On horseback he would ride up and down the length of a wagon train and deliver messages between the drivers and workmen. Next, he joined Johnston's Army as an unofficial member of the scouts assigned to guide the United States Army to Utah, to put down a rumored rebellion by the Mormon population of Salt Lake City.

According to Cody's account in Buffalo Bill's Own Story, the Utah War was where he began his career as an "Indian fighter".

At the age of 14, in 1860, Cody was caught up in the "gold fever", with news of gold at Fort Colville and the Holcomb Valley Gold Rush in California. On his way to the goldfields, however, he met an agent for the Pony Express. He signed with them, and after building several stations and corrals, Cody was given a job as a rider. He worked at this until he was called home to his sick mother's bedside.

Military services

After his mother recovered, Cody wanted to enlist as a soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War but was refused because of his young age. He began working with a freight caravan that delivered supplies to Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming. In 1863, at age 17, he enlisted as a teamster with the rank of private in Company H, 7th Kansas Cavalry, and served until discharged in 1865.

The next year, Cody married Louisa Frederici. They had four children. Two died young, while the family was living in Rochester, New York. They and a third child are buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, in Rochester.

In 1866, he reunited with his old friend Wild Bill Hickok in Junction City, Kansas, then serving as a scout. Cody enlisted as a scout himself at Fort Ellsworth and scouted between there and Fort Fletcher (later renamed and moved to Fort Hays). He was attached as a scout, variously, to Captain George Augustus Armes ( Battle of the Saline River) and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (guide and impromptu horse race to Fort Larned). It was during this service at Fort Ellsworth that he met William Rose, with whom he would found the short-lived settlement of Rome.

In 1867, with the construction of the Kansas Pacific Railway completing through Hays City and Rome, Cody was granted a leave of absence to hunt buffalo to supply railroad construction workers with meat. This endeavor continued into 1868, which saw his hunting contest with William Comstock.

Cody returned to Army service in 1868. From his post in Fort Larned, he performed an exceptional feat of riding as a lone dispatch courier from Fort Larned to Fort Zarah (escaping brief capture), Fort Zarah to Fort Hays, Fort Hays to Fort Dodge, Fort Dodge to Fort Larned, and, finally, Fort Larned to Fort Hays, a total of 350 miles in 58 hours through hostile territory, covering the last 35 miles on foot. In response, General Philip Sheridan assigned him Chief of Scouts for the 5th Cavalry Regiment.

He was also Chief of Scouts for the Third Cavalry in later campaigns of the Plains Wars.

In January 1872, Cody was a scout for the highly publicized hunting expedition of the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia.

Medal of Honor

Cody was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1872 for documented gallantry above and beyond the call of duty as an Army scout in the Indian Wars. It was revoked in 1917, along with medals of 910 other recipients dating back to the Revolutionary War, when Congress decided to create a hierarchy of medals, designating the "Medal of Honor" as the highest military honor it could bestow. Subsequent regulations authorized the War Department to revoke prior Medal of Honor awards it considered not meeting requirements since the introduction of strict regulations promulgated under the 1917 law. Those regulations required the medal to be awarded for acts of bravery above and beyond the call of duty by officers or enlisted soldiers. Ironically, the law was enacted days before Buffalo Bill died, so he never knew a law might rescind the medal awarded to him. All civilian scout medals were rescinded since they did not appear to meet the basic criterion of being officers or enlisted soldiers, which had been expressly listed in every authorizing statute ever enacted for the Medal of Honor. Cody was one of five scouts affected. Their medals were stripped shortly after Cody died in 1917.

Cody's relatives objected, and, for over 72 years, they wrote repeatedly to the US Congress seeking reconsideration. All efforts failed, until a 1988 letter to the Senate from Cody's grandson received by the office of senator Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming, when a newly minted legislative assistant (K. Yale) took up the cause in 1989. The legal brief he drafted and submitted to the Department of Defense on behalf of the relatives of Buffalo Bill argued that civilian scouts were technically officers, as their native American counterparts were nominally scouts. However, they were given the rank and pay of officers - both for retention purposes. Also, scouts were the equivalent of "reconnaissance" for the military and thus provided highly valued services. In addition, a practical reason was to avoid mistaking them for opponents in skirmishes. Moreover, although civilian scouts might have normally been officers because of their highly valued skills, the military drawdown and related budget cuts after the Civil War left no billets available for the civilian scouts to fill, and thus they were relegated to a highly qualified status that treated them as valuable military assets without the designation or retirement benefits of officers. Nevertheless, they were treated as high-ranking military officials and had status of officers alongside their native American brethren. The brief argued for retroactive restoration of the Medal of Honor to Buffalo Bill, and the Department of Defense required the appeal to be adjudicated by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records. After months of deliberation, the Board agreed with the persuasive legal brief and made the decision to restore the Medal of Honor, not only to Buffalo Bill but also several other civilian scouts whose medals had also been rescinded.

Cody received the nickname "Buffalo Bill" after the American Civil War, when he had a contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo (American bison) meat. Cody is purported to have killed 4,282 buffalo in eighteen months in 1867 and 1868. Cody and another hunter, Bill Comstock, competed in an eight-hour buffalo-shooting match over the exclusive right to use the name, which Cody won by killing 68 animals to Comstock's 48.

Birth of the legend

In 1869, the 23-year-old Cody met Ned Buntline, who later published a story based on Cody's adventures (largely invented by the writer) in Street and Smith's New York Weekly and then published a highly successful novel, Buffalo Bill, King of the Bordermen, which was first serialized on the front page of the Chicago Tribune, beginning that December 15. Many other sequels followed by Buntline, Prentiss Ingraham and others from the 1870s through the early part of the twentieth century. Cody later became world-famous for Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a touring show which traveled around the United States, Great Britain, and Continental Europe. Audiences were enthusiastic about seeing a piece of the American West. Emilio Salgari, a noted Italian writer of adventure stories, met Buffalo Bill when he came to Italy and saw his show; Salgari later featured Cody as a hero in some of his novels.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West

In December 1872, Cody traveled to Chicago to make his stage debut with his friend Texas Jack Omohundro in The Scouts of the Prairie, one of the original Wild West shows produced by Ned Buntline. The effort was panned by critics - one critic compared Cody's acting to a "diffident schoolboy" - but the handsome performer was a hit with the sold-out crowds.

In 1873, Cody invited "Wild Bill" Hickok to join the group in a new play called Scouts of the Plains. Hickok did not enjoy acting and often hid behind scenery; in one show, he shot at the spotlight when it focused on him. He was therefore released from the group after a few months. Cody founded the Buffalo Bill Combination in 1874, in which he performed for part of the year while scouting on the prairies the rest of the year. The troupe toured for ten years.

In 1883, in the area of North Platte, Nebraska, Cody founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a circus-like attraction that toured annually. (Contrary to the popular misconception, the word Show was not a part of the title.) With his show, Cody traveled throughout the United States and Europe, and made many contacts. He stayed, for example, in Garden City, Kansas, in the presidential suite of the former Windsor Hotel. He was befriended by the mayor and state representative, a frontier scout, rancher, and hunter named Charles "Buffalo" Jones. In 1886, Cody and Nate Salsbury, his theatrical manager, entered into partnership with Evelyn Booth (1860-1901), a big-game hunter and scion of the aristocratic Booth family. It was at this time Buffalo Bill's Cowboy Band was organized. The band was directed by William Sweeney, a cornet player who served as leader of the Cowboy Band from 1883 until 1913. Sweeney handled all of the musical arrangements and wrote a majority of the music performed by the Cowboy Band.

In 1893, Cody changed the title to Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World. The show began with a parade on horseback, with participants from horse-culture groups that included the US and another military, cowboys, American Indians, and performers from all over the world in their best attire. Turks, gauchos, Arabs, Mongols and Georgians displayed their distinctive horses and colorful costumes. Visitors would see main events, feats of skill, staged races, and sideshows. Many historical western figures participated in the show. For example, Sitting Bull appeared with a band of 20 of his braves.

With his profits, Cody purchased a 4,000-acre (16-km²) ranch near North Platte, Nebraska, in 1886. The Scout's Rest Ranch included an eighteen-room mansion and a large barn for winter storage of the show's livestock.

In 1887, invited by the British businessman John Robinson Whitley, Cody took the show to Great Britain in celebration of the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, who attended a performance. It played in London and then in Birmingham and Salford, near Manchester, where it stayed for five months.

In 1889, the show toured Europe, and, in 1890, Cody met Pope Leo XIII. On March 8, 1890, a competition took place. Buffalo Bill had met some Italian butteri (a less-well-known sort of Italian equivalent of cowboys) and said his men were more skilled at roping calves and performing other similar actions. A group of Buffalo Bill's men challenged nine butteri, led by Augusto Imperiali [it], at Prati di Castello neighbourhood in Rome. The butteri easily won the competition. Augusto Imperiali became a local hero after the event: a street and a monument were dedicated to him in his hometown, Cisterna di Latina, and he was featured as the hero in a series of comic strips in the 1920s and 1930s.

Cody set up an independent exhibition near the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, which greatly contributed to his popularity in the United States. It vexed the promoters of the fair, who had rejected his request to participate.

In 1894, Edison Studios invited Buffalo Bill and his show to be filmed in an early silent film: Buffalo Bill.

In 1908, Pawnee Bill and Buffalo Bill joined forces and created the Two Bills show. That show was foreclosed on when it was playing in Denver, Colorado.

The Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill Film Company, based in New York City, produced a three-reel motion picture in 1912 titled The Life of Buffalo Bill. Cody himself appears in scenes that bookend the short film, a series of adventures presented in flashback as Buffalo Bill's dreams. The film had two other directors before it was successfully completed by John B. O'Brien. The film is in the collection of the Library of Congress.

Life in Cody, Wyoming

In 1895, Cody was instrumental in the founding of the town of Cody, the seat of Park County, in northwestern Wyoming. Today the Old Trail Town museum is at the center of the community and commemorates the traditions of Western life. Cody first passed through the region in the 1870s. He was so impressed by the development possibilities from irrigation, rich soil, grand scenery, hunting, and proximity to Yellowstone Park that he returned in the mid-1890s to start a town. Streets in the town were named after his associates: Beck, Alger, Rumsey, Bleistein, and Salsbury. The town was incorporated in 1901.

In November 1902, Cody opened the Irma Hotel, named after his daughter. He envisioned a growing number of tourists coming to Cody on the recently opened Burlington rail line. He expected that they would proceed up Cody Road, along the north fork of the Shoshone River, to visit Yellowstone Park. To accommodate travelers, Cody completed the construction of the Wapiti Inn and Pahaska Tepee in 1905 along Cody Road with the assistance of the artist and rancher Abraham Archibald Anderson.

Cody established the TE Ranch, located on the south fork of the Shoshone River about thirty-five miles from Cody. When he acquired the TE property, he stocked it with cattle sent from Nebraska and South Dakota. The new herd carried the TE brand. The late 1890s were relatively prosperous years for the Wild West show, and he bought more land to add to the ranch. He eventually held about eight thousand acres ( square miles; 32 square kilometers) of private land for grazing operations and ran about a thousand head of cattle. He operated a dude ranch, pack-horse camping trips, and big-game hunting business at and from the TE Ranch. In his spacious ranch house, he entertained notable guests from Europe and America.

Cody founded the local newspaper, The Cody Enterprise, in 1899 with Col. John Peake.

Cody published his autobiography, The Life and Adventures of Buffalo Bill, in 1879. Another autobiography, The Great West That Was: "Buffalo Bill's" Life Story, was serialized in Hearst's International Magazine from August 1916 to July 1917. and ghostwritten by James J. Montague. It contained several errors, in part because it was completed after Cody's death in January 1917.

Bill's Daughter, Irma Cody, died in Cody in 1918. She is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Cody, Wyoming.

Irrigation

Larry McMurtry, along with historians such as R. L. Wilson, asserted that at the turn of the 20th century, Cody was the most recognizable celebrity on Earth. While Cody's show brought an appreciation for the Western and American Indian cultures, he saw the American West change dramatically during his life. Bison herds, which had once numbered in the millions, were threatened with extinction. Railroads crossed the plains, barbed wire, and other types of fences divided the land for farmers and ranchers, and the once-threatening Indian tribes were confined to reservations. Wyoming's coal, oil and natural gas were beginning to be exploited toward the end of his life.

The Shoshone River was dammed for hydroelectric power and irrigation. In 1897 and 1899, Cody and his associates acquired from the State of Wyoming the right to take water from the Shoshone River to irrigate about 169,000 acres (680 km ²) of land in the Big Horn Basin. They began developing a canal to carry water diverted from the river, but their plans did not include a water storage reservoir. Cody and his associates were unable to raise sufficient capital to complete their plan. Early in 1903, they joined with the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners in urging the federal government to step in and help with irrigation in the valley.

The Shoshone Project became one of the first federal water development projects undertaken by the newly formed Reclamation Service, later known as the Bureau of Reclamation. After Reclamation took over the project in 1903, investigating engineers recommended constructing a dam on the Shoshone River in the canyon west of Cody. Construction of the Shoshone Dam started in 1905, a year after the Shoshone Project was authorized. When it was completed in 1910, it was the tallest dam in the world. Almost three decades after its construction, the name of the dam and reservoir was changed to Buffalo Bill Dam by an act of Congress.

Cody married Louisa Frederici on March 6, 1866, just a few days after his twentieth birthday. The couple met when Cody had traveled to St. Louis under his command during the Civil War.

Frederici stayed home with their four children in North Platte, while he stayed outside the home, hunting, scouting, and building up his acting career in the Wild West show. As Cody began to travel more frequently and to places farther from home, the couple grew more and more distant from each other.

Cody filed for divorce in 1904, after 38 years of marriage. Cody hoped to keep the divorce quiet, to not disrupt his show or his stage persona, but Frederici had other ideas.

Filing for divorce was scandalous in the early 20th century when marital unions were seen as binding for life. This furthered Cody's determination to get Frederici to agree to a "quiet legal separation," to avoid "war and publicity." The court records and depositions that were kept with the court case threatened to ruin Cody's respectability and credibility. His private life had not been open to the public before, and the application for divorce brought unwanted attention to the matter.

However, after the trial moved to court in February 1905, Cody changed his mind. Cody's change of mind was not due to any improvement in his relationship with Frederici but rather was due to the death of their daughter, Arta Louise, in 1904 from "organic trouble." With this weighing heavily on him, Cody sent a telegram to Frederici hoping to put aside "personal differences" for the funeral. Frederici was furious and refused any temporary reconciliation. When the trial proceeded a year later, in 1905, both their tempers were still hot. The final ruling was that "incompatibility was not grounds for divorce," so that the couple was to stay legally married. Cody returned to Paris to continue with the Wild West show and attempted to maintain a hospitable, but distant, relationship with his wife. The two reconciled in 1910, after which Frederici often traveled with her husband until he died in 1917.

Cody died on January 10, 1917. He was baptized in the Catholic Church the day before his death by Father Christopher Walsh of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. He received a full Masonic funeral. Upon the news of Cody's death, tributes were made by King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and President Woodrow Wilson. His funeral service was held at the Elks Lodge Hall in Denver. The governor of Wyoming, John B. Kendrick, a friend of Cody, led the funeral procession to the cemetery.

At the time of his death, Cody's once-great fortune had dwindled to less than $100,000 (approximately $2,284,200 in February 2024). He left his burial arrangements with his wife. She said that he had always said he wanted to be buried on Lookout Mountain, which was corroborated by their daughter Irma, Cody's sisters, and family friends. But other family members joined the people of Cody in saying that he should be buried in the town he founded.

On June 9, 1917, his show was sold to Archer Banker of Salina, Kansas, for $105,000 (approximately $2,398,360 today).

Philosophy

As a frontier scout, Cody respected Native Americans and supported their civil rights. He employed many Native Americans, as he thought his show offered them good pay with a chance to improve their lives. He described them as "the former foe, present friend, the American" and once said that "every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government."

Cody supported the rights of women. He said, "What we want to do is give women, even more, liberty than they have. Let them do any kind of work they see fit, and if they do it as well as men, give them the same pay." Women such as Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane had legendary roles in his show, and later in life Cody continued to hire and treat women fairly. Cody said in an interview in 1898, "Set that down in great big black type that Buffalo Bill favors woman suffrage... These fellows who prate about the women taking their places make me laugh... If a woman can do the same work that a man can do and do it just as well, she should have the same pay."

In his shows, the Indians were usually depicted attacking stagecoaches and wagon trains and were driven off by cowboys and soldiers. Many family members traveled with the men; Cody encouraged the wives and children of his Native American performers, as part of the show, to set up camp just as they would in their homelands. He wanted the paying public to see the human side of the "fierce warriors".

Cody was known as a conservationist who spoke out against hide-hunting and advocated the establishment of a hunting season.

Cody as a Freemason

Cody was active in the concordant bodies of the fraternal organization of Freemasonry having been initiated in Platte Valley Lodge No. 32, in North Platte, Nebraska, on March 5, 1870. He received his second and third degrees on April 2, 1870, and January 10, 1871, respectively. He became a Knight Templar in 1889 and received his 32nd degree in the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in 1894.

Legacy and honors

In 1872, Cody was awarded the Medal of Honor for service as a civilian scout to the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, for "gallantry in action" at Loupe Forke, Platte River, Nebraska. In 1917, after Congress revised the standards for the award, the U.S. Army removed from the rolls 911 medals previously awarded to civilians or for actions that would not warrant a Medal of Honor under the new higher standards. Cody's medal was among those revoked. In 1977, Congress began reviewing numerous cases; it reinstated the medals for Cody and four other civilian scouts on June 12, 1989.

The Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway through the Shoshone National Forest is a National Forest Scenic Byway and Wyoming Scenic Byway named after Buffalo Bill

Because of his funding and planning with The Shoshone Project The Buffalo Bill Dam, The Buffalo Bill Reservoir created by the dam, and the Buffalo Bill State Park at the reservoir are all named after him.

The Buffalo Bill Ranch State Park, also known as the Scout's Rest Ranch in North Platte, Nebraska was designated as a Nebraska State Historical Park in 1965, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021.

Cody was honored by two U.S. postage stamps. One was a fifteen-cent Great Americans series stamp.

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West was founded in Cody, Wyoming. The town is named in his honor.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West and the Progressive Image of American Indians is a collaborative project of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and the history department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with assistance from the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. This digital history project contains letters, official programs, newspaper reports, posters, and photographs. The project highlights the social and cultural forces that shaped how American Indians were defined, debated, contested, and controlled in this period. This project was based on the Papers of William F. Cody project of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

The National Museum of American History's Photographic History Collection at the Smithsonian Institution preserves and displays Gertrude Käsebier's photographs of the Wild West show. Michelle Delaney has published Buffalo Bill's Wild West Warriors: Photographs by Gertrude Käsebier.

Some Oglala Lakota people carry on family show business traditions from ancestors who were Carlisle Indian School alumni and worked for Buffalo Bill and other Wild West shows. Several national projects celebrate Wild Westers and Wild Westing. Wild Westers still perform in movies, powwows, pageants, and rodeos.

The Buffalo Bills, a National Football League team based in Buffalo, New York, were named after the entertainer. Other early football teams (such as the Buffalo Bills of the All-America Football Conference) used the nickname, solely for name recognition, as Cody had no special connection with the city of Buffalo. He did however live for a few years in nearby Rochester. Three of Buffalo Bill's children are buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York.

Euro Disneyland Railroad locomotive #1 is named the W. F. Cody in his honor.

In 1958, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Bubble O' Bill, an ice cream in the shape of a cowboy currently sold in Australia and previously available in the United States and United Kingdom, is named as such after Cody's stage name.

"The Scout" 1924, by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, in Cody, Wy

"Buffalo Bill - Plainsman" 1976, by Bob Scriver, in Cody, Wy

"The Spirit of Cody" 1999 by Jeffery B. Rudolph in Cody, Wy

"Born Under a Wandering Star" by Vic Payne in Cody, Wy

"Howdy Folks" 2000, by Jeffery Rudolph in Golden, Colorado

"Buffalo Bill Monument" 2004 by Charlie Norton in Oakley, Kansas

"Buffalo Bill " at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City

"Buffalo Bill Statue" 2006 in Glasgow

"America" 1876 by John Bell (sculptor), a section of the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, London features a western figure that bears a resemblance to Buffalo Bill standing next to an American Bison.

In Spanish: Buffalo Bill para niños

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William Frederick Cody-better known as Buffalo Bill-was a folk hero of the American West. Novelists wrote about his adventures as an Army scout and buffalo hunter. He also produced a famous show about the Wild West.

Cody was born in Iowa on February 26, 1846. He grew up in Kansas. At age 14 he started working for the Pony Express, a service that delivered mail on horseback.

In the 1860s Cody served in the American Civil War and scouted for the U.S. Army. As a scout he roamed around to gather information about the Native Americans. He also hunted buffalo (bison). He got the nickname Buffalo Bill for shooting thousands of buffalo to feed railroad workers.

From 1872 to 1883 Cody acted in plays about the West. He also guided the U.S. cavalry in 1874 and fought for the Army against the Sioux in 1876.

In 1883 Cody started his Wild West show-later known as Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World. The show featured trick riding, sharpshooting, and a buffalo hunt. It toured the United States and Europe for 30 years.

Cody used the money he made from his show to buy land in Wyoming. There he helped found the town of Cody. He died in Denver, Colorado, on January 10, 1917.

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William Frederick Cody-better known as Buffalo Bill-was a folk hero of the American West. Novelists wrote about his adventures as an Army scout and buffalo hunter. He also produced a famous show about the Wild West. Cody was born in Iowa on February 26, 1846. He grew up in Kansas.

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Prairie dogs are burrowing ground squirrels endemic to the central and western prairies and desert grasslands of North America. Of the five prairie dog species, two are endangered. Their social antics entertain onlookers, and the nine species (including eagles and badgers) that rely on them as a primary food source prove them to be vastly important. Birds use their burrows as nests and grazing animals prefer the grass around those burrows because it's more succulent, nutritious, and digestible.

Needless to say, prairie dogs are integral to grassland ecosystems. Here are 11 fascinating facts about the quirky and exceedingly valuable animals.

1. Prairie Dogs' Biggest Threat Is Humans

The five prairie dog species-black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison's, Utah, and Mexican-once numbered in the hundreds of millions. Hunting, poisoning, and habitat loss decreased populations up to 95%.

The Mexican and Utah species are listed as endangered by the IUCN. Habitat loss due to urbanization and farms hurt both species, but extensive poisoning programs also take place. The Mexican prairie dog has lost at least 65% of its former range, and the remainder is threatened by development. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that the Utah prairie dog population is rebounding. The remaining species are currently listed as "least concern," but all species have decreasing populations. Sylvatic plague, brought to North America from Europe, wipes out entire colonies.

2. They Rarely Transmit Plague to Humans

Like many other rodents, prairie dogs are susceptible to the plague. Their response is dramatic: More than 95% of prairie dogs will die within 78 hours of plague infection. If an active prairie dog colony suddenly becomes quiet, that's an indicator of plague.

Plague, which is caused by Yersinia pestis bacteria, is transmitted by infected fleas. Though a prairie dog can infect humans directly, that rarely happens as prairie dogs avoid people. Cases linked to prairie dogs are generally from pets picking up fleas from infected areas. A vaccine to prevent outbreaks is showing promise.

3. They Have Well-Organized Homes

Prairie dogs live in complex underground burrows with designated areas for nurseries, sleeping, and toilets. The tunnel system is designed to allow air to flow through them, providing ventilation; this is facilitated by angling the mound at the top to utilize prevailing winds. To provide safety, every exit also has a listening post, and a sentry is found at the opening of active burrows.

4. They Live in Towns

Prairie dogs are social animals, and they live in family groups called coteries that typically contain an adult male, two or three adult females, and their young. Coteries are grouped together into wards, and several wards of prairie dogs make up a town or colony.

The largest town ever recorded belonged to a large group of black-tailed prairie dogs in Texas and covered 25,000 square miles.

5. They Greet With a Kiss

Prairie dogs appear to kiss when they come and go in the area around their burrow. Researchers call this behavior a "greet-kiss." When they do so, they'll touch noses and lock their teeth with one another, which allows them to determine if they're members of the same family group. If they belong to the same family, they continue with their day. If not related, they will often fight or chase the interloper from the area. Some prairie dogs are bridges between groups. Researchers are interested in those because removing the bridge animals may slow or stop the plague's spread.

6. They're Ecologically Important

As a keystone species for the prairies, entire ecosystems rely on these tiny mammals. Their tunneling aerates the soil, and their dung is high in nitrogen, which improves soil quality. Grasses and other plants are kept clipped short, so prairie dogs and other prey species have a clear view of predators. Their burrows provide homes for snakes, spiders, burrowing owls, black-footed ferrets, and more. Badgers not only take advantage of prairie dog architecture by moving into burrows, but they also make meals out of the prairie dogs themselves. Prairie dogs are also prey to coyotes, foxes, snakes, birds of prey, and bobcats.

7. They Have Their Own Language

Prairie dogs' means of communication is said to be even more complex than that of chimpanzees and dolphins. Researcher Con Slobodchikoff of Northern Arizona University found that the animals have barks and chirps that communicate numerous messages.

Many messages alert the colony about predators. Prairie dogs embed information about the predator's size, color, direction, and speed in a single bark. Colonies consistently use the same barks to describe the same predators, even if it is a new threat. Prairie dogs even have a specific call that describes humans with guns.

8. They Have a Contagious Jump-Yip

Prairie dogs are under constant threat from predators like hawks and coyotes, so they protect themselves by staying in continuous communication. This often results in a contagious jump-yip behavior where one prairie dog's action is mimicked by others. One animal stands on its hind legs, stretches its arms out, throws back its head, and yips. Upon hearing the sound, other prairie dogs copy the behavior, and jump-yips spread throughout the colony.

9. They Kill Other Animals To Eliminate Competition

Prairie dogs don't kill many animals for food. As herbivores, their diet consists mostly of grasses, plants, and leaves, though the occasional insect may also feature. However, they can be quite fierce when protecting their turf. Prairie dogs have been known to kill ground squirrels to eliminate competition. They'll usually discard the carcass, only sometimes consuming small portions of their kills. This pays off for the prairie dogs, though: Females that kill other species tend to have healthier offspring, regardless of other factors. This is likely due to the resulting increase in available food.

They also kill young of their own species, and when they do, they generally eat all or part of the carcass.

10. They Mate for Just 1 Hour Each Year

Females go into "estrus" (a period of fertility) for only an hour once a year, in early winter (February-March). Males become exceedingly aggressive as they compete for a mate and will fight violently with other males. Both males and females try to copulate with as many partners as possible during this time frame to increase chances of pregnancy. The females eventually give birth to litters of 3 to 8 puppies, with a 50% survival rate.

11. They Are Diurnal

That means that they are active during the day and sleep at night, like humans. This is important because prairie dogs have terrible night vision and would be more vulnerable to predators in the dark. They do everything they need to do during daylight hours and will only exit burrows at night under rare circumstances.

Save the Prairie Dogs

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11 Fun and Fascinating Prairie Dog Facts

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These burrowing rodents build their own towns, they help the environment, and they even talk about us.

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Tatanka-Iyotanka: Leader of the Lakota | The West | PBS LearningMedia

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Uncover the conflict that was the basis for the Battle of Little Bighorn with this video about Tatanka-Iyotanka. Sitting Bull, or Tatanka-Iyotanka, was a chief and holy man of the Lakota. When Americans offered him money for support in moving the Lakota off the sacred Black Hills, where white Americans had found gold, he refused.

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Tatanka-Iyotanka (Sitting Bull): Leader of the Lakota

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Sitting Bull Biography for Kids | Classroom Video

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Who Was Sitting Bull? for Kids | Learn all about this Lakota Chief

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Colorado and the West: Native American History in Colorado

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Colorado Experience: The Original Coloradans

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The Ute perform at the University of Utah

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The Ute perform at the University of Utah

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Ute Tribe Utah Football Halftime Performance

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The Dispersal of the Domesticated Horse in the Americas

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The Dispersal of the Domesticated Horse in the Americas

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The Dispersal of the Domestic Horse into the Americas | Dr. Emily Jones

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The Comanche and the Horse | Native America | Sacred Stories | PBS

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How the Native Peoples Broke Horses to Ride

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How the Native Peoples Broke Horses to Ride

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The life and legend of America's most famous wild horse

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The People of the Horse | National Geographic

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Erika Larsen: People of the Horse | Nat Geo Live

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Meet Picasso, America’s Most Famous Wild Horse That Will Stun You With His Beautiful Coat

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Wrangling Wild Horses in the Mountains of Montana | Short Film Showcase

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How Wyoming uses wild horses to help prison inmates | 60 Minutes

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How Horses Took Over North America (Twice)

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Where Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse Defeated Colonel Custer

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Custer's Last Stand — from the Lakota perspective

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Artifacts From the Battle of the Little Bighorn

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Artifacts From the Battle of the Little Bighorn

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American Artifacts: Battle of Little Bighorn

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What We Got Wrong About "Custer's Last Stand"

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What We Got Wrong About "Custer's Last Stand"

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Why We've Gotten 'Custer's Last Stand' Wrong for Nearly 150 Years

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How the Goldrush Shaped Colorado History

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How the Goldrush Shaped Colorado History

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Colorado history: How the gold rush shaped our state

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The ghosts of a gold rush town - BBC News

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Cherokee Almanac: Discovery of Colorado Gold

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Colorado Experience: Creede - The Last Boom Town

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Colorado Experience: The Lost Irish Miners of Leadville

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Colorado Experience: Women of the Santa Fe Trail

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Colorado Experience: Ladies of the Mines

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Colorado's women ranchers take on a traditionally male-dominated industry

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History Colorado: Giving women the right to vote in Colorado

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Transcontinental Railroad and the American West

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The Transcontinental Railroad and the Forgotten Chinese Workers Who Helped Build It

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The Astonishing Story of the Men Who Built the Railroad

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The Astonishing Story of the Men Who Built the Railroad

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Asian Americans | The Astonishing Story of the Men Who Built the Railroad

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The Chinese Exclusion Act | Inside Look | PBS

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America the Story of Us: Gold Rush | History

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'American Built:' The Transcontinental Railroad

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Beaver Wetlands: North America’s Ecological Jewels

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Saving Colorado's Lesser Prairie - Chicken

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Past, Present and Future of Wolves: Journey of the Gray Wolf

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Meet The Skiing Soldiers Of The 10th Mountain Division | TODAY

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Soldiers on Skis: 10th Mountain Division

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Buffalo Bill and His Wild West Show | The American Buffalo | A Film by Ken Burns | PBS

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Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show Employed Real Native Americans

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The Last White Man Tells the White Perspective of the Battle of the Little Bighorn

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The Last White Man Tells the White Perspective of the Battle of the Little Bighorn

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The last white man to see Custer alive tells his story of the battle

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"Swigs" - Guest Blogger

I've been getting a great deal of correspondence regarding what is a true greenback trout. In addition many folks appear to be gearing up for some fishing in the higher elevations. I responded to several emails on this topic over the past few weeks so I thought I would share some perspective.

Fisheries management in Colorado's high mountain streams and lakes began about 1860, 16 years before Colorado became the 38th state. Early fish management in the high country generally focused on the production of self sustaining, easily harvested populations of sport fish. In the minds of our ancestors, stocking brook trout filled this void. Brook trout, native to northeastern North America, were intentionally introduced into Colorado waters in 1872 by a gentleman who imported and hatched 10,000 brook trout eggs from Wisconsin at a rudimentary facility 10 miles south of Denver. Following the completion of the intercontinental railroad, rainbow trout rainbow, now the most abundantly stocked trout in Colorado, were imported from California. Early fish stocking was completed by carrying large milk cans filled with water and fish on the backs of horses and early settlers. The philosophy of early fish managers was simply to stock as many waters as possible and determine at a later time what worked or "stuck", so to speak.

Mentality slowly began to change in the 1970's as a movement toward species conservation and production of specific trophy trout fisheries gained momentum. Although natural reproduction continues to sustain a fair number of brook trout fisheries, stocking of this species essentially ceased in 1977. From 1978 through 1996, most high mountain lakes in NE Colorado were almost exclusively stocked with Pike's Peak Cutthroat Trout, a fast growing sub-species of trout that closely resembled the greenback cutthroat trout. Greenback cutthroat trout, Colorado's state fish, was considered extinct by the 1930's, however a small number of populations were found in NE Colorado in the 1950's.

With so few individuals available to propagate other waters, the Pike's Peak cutthroat trout we're favored over the greenbacks. Finally in 1999 hatchery production allowed Colorado Park's and Wildlife to exclusively stock what was thought to be pure-strain greenback cutthroat trout on the east slope. Despite being a physical match to early 1900's museum specimens of greenback cutthroat, advances in genetic technology revealed that the greenbacks were a genetic mix of greenback and Colorado River cutthroat trout; east meets west slope so to speak. Historians began digging deeper and what had been occurring at a much higher rate than thought was the transfer of Colorado River cutthroat to the west slope by early settlers.

With the average angler not exactly concerned with state of the art genetic findings, many high mountain lakes and streams on the East slope of Colorado contain cutthroat trout which are nearly a 100% visual match to what a greenback looks like. Despite looking like a chicken, tasting like a chicken, and "baaaking" like a chicken, so to speak the search for a genetically pure population of greenbacks did not end once the convoluted genetic findings were revealed.

A single population of greenback cutthroat trout that genetically matched the museum samples was recently located near Colorado Springs (Bear Creek, no fishing allowed). The story will continue to unravel as biologists determine what the next step will be regarding the Bear Creek fish but where does that leave the anger who simply wants to catch a native cutthroat trout (I intentionally left out greenback) in Colorado? Fortunately if you live along the East slope of Colorado and plan to keep your genetic sampling kit separate from your tackle box, there are several locations to land a native cutthroat trout. I recommend the following:

1) Rawah Wilderness, 2) Indian Peaks Wilderness, 3) Rocky Mountain National Park (managed by US Fish and Wildlife Service), and 4) State Forest State Park just to name a few.

There are hundreds of additional waters with native cutts, I'm simply more familiar with the NE region of the state. Use the CPW fishing atlas to located a cutthroat water near you:

http://ndismaps.nrel.colostate.edu/fishingatlas/

The native cutthroats stocked in these waters are the offspring of wild cutthroat collected from the East Slope of Colorado. I've had the chance to handle a number of these fish, what they may lack in genetic integrity is certainly not evident in their beauty. Go fish Colorado!

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History, High Mountains, and Cutthroats!

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by Ben Swigle: Fisheries management in Colorado's high mountain streams and lakes began about 1860, 16 years before Colorado became the 38th state. Early fish management generally focused on the production of self sustaining, easily harvested populations of sport fish.

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William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody

1846 - 1917

William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was born just west of the Mississippi River near LeClaire, Iowa, on February 26, 1846. At age 12, he worked for a wagon train headed to Fort Laramie, Wyoming; the next year, he participated in the gold rush to Colorado; and at 15, he reportedly rode for the Pony Express. By the end of his life, he had come to symbolize the American frontier itself.

Cody served as a scout for the Union Army's Seventh Kansas Cavalry during the last years of the American Civil War. On March 6, 1866, he married Louisa Frederici (1843 - 1921) in St. Louis, Missouri. They had four children: Arta Lucille (1866 - 1904), Kit Carson (1870 - 1876), Orra Maude (1872 - 1883), and Irma Louise (1883 - 1918).

In 1867, Cody hunted buffalo for the Kansas Pacific Railroad work crews, earning his moniker "Buffalo Bill" and his reputation as an expert shot. The next year, he was employed by the U.S. Army as a civilian scout and guide for the Fifth Cavalry. His experience and skills as a plainsman made him an invaluable tracker and fighter. On April 26, 1872, Cody became one of only four civilian scouts to be awarded the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars for valor in action. (He was later declared ineligible for the medal and stricken from the roll in 1917, but his name was reinstated in 1989 by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.)

The First "Media Events"

U.S. Army General Philip Sheridan saw in Cody a combination of charisma and frontier know-how-a natural "public relations windfall" for the Army of the West, which was in need of some good publicity. Under the protection of the Army, visiting dignitaries, such as the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, took lavish hunting expeditions accompanied by General Sheridan and Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer with Buffalo Bill as their guide. These excursions were full-scale media events, glamorizing both the military and Cody.

During this time, the pulp fiction industry produced inexpensive magazines that romanticized the exploits of the heroes and villains who roamed the plains-including Buffalo Bill, a central figure of many of these inflated truths. In 1872, dime novel writer Ned Buntline persuaded Cody to portray himself on stage. The "show business bug" hit Cody, and he formed his own "combination" troupe the next year. The group also included James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok and Texas Jack Omohundro, authentic western characters who gave some credence to the melodrama.

During the height of the Plains Indians resistance to white settlement, Cody returned to the prairies in summer 1876 to scout for the Fifth Army. On July 17, 1876, just three weeks after Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were defeated at the Battle of Little Big Horn, Cody's regiment intercepted a band of Cheyenne warriors. When Buffalo Bill, in his stage clothing, killed and scalped a Cheyenne warrior named Yellow Hair (often mistranslated "Yellow Hand"), he reportedly cried out "First scalp for Custer!" Buffalo Bill the frontiersman had proved that Buffalo Bill the character was no mere actor.

The "Great Showman" and Entrepreneur

In 1883, Cody created what would become Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a grand performance that propelled him to fortune and worldwide fame. The Wild West was staged, in one form or another, for thirty years, playing to enthusiastic crowds throughout the United States and Europe. In Europe, Cody was called "Nature's Nobleman" because he was someone who had grown up on the frontier yet represented all of those best aspects of civilization.

Despite his characterization as a figure from the past, Buffalo Bill always looked to the future. As a businessman, he invested in projects that he hoped might bring economic growth to the West. With his earnings, he invested in an Arizona mine, hotels in Sheridan and Cody, Wyoming, stock breeding, ranching, coal and oil development, film making, town building, tourism, and publishing. In 1899, he established his own newspaper, the Cody Enterprise, which is still the main source of news for the town of Cody today. Taking advantage of his celebrity status, Cody was an early advocate of women's suffrage and the fair treatment of American Indians.

The most famous American in the world

By the turn of the twentieth century, William F. Cody was arguably the most famous American in the world. No one symbolized the West for Americans and Europeans better than Buffalo Bill. Every American president from Ulysses S. Grant to Woodrow Wilson consulted him on matters affecting the American West. He counted among his friends such artists and writers as Frederic Remington and Mark Twain. He was honored by royalty, praised by military leaders, and feted by business tycoons. Cody was America's ideal man: a courtly, chivalrous, self-made fellow who could shoot a gun and charm a crowd. Yet as Annie Oakley put it, "He was the simplest of men, as comfortable with cowboys as with kings."

Genealogy

Interested in exploring your genealogical ties to William F. Cody? Contact:

International Cody Family Association
PO Box 9854
Cincinnati, OH 45209

E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.cody-family.org

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Buffalo Bill Biography - Buffalo Bill Center of the West

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1846 - 1917 William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was born just west of the Mississippi River near LeClaire, Iowa, on February 26, 1846. At age 12, he worked for a wagon train headed to Fort Laramie, Wyoming; the next year, he participated in the gold rush to Colorado; and at 15, he reportedly rode for the Pony Express.

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uffalo Bill is onstage engaged in fierce battle. He and his scouts are fighting a ferocious group of Cheyenne warriors. The audience holds its breath as the terrifying Cheyenne appear to be gaining the upper hand. But just when it seems all hope is lost, Buffalo Bill-dressed in an elegant black velvet, lace-trimmed, Mexican vaquero suit-takes aim at the Cheyenne war chief Yellow Hand and fires. Their chief shot dead, the Cheyenne are defeated. Buffalo Bill walks over to Yellow Hand's lifeless body, takes out his knife, and removes Yellow Hand's scalp. Buffalo Bill triumphantly raises the scalp in the air. "For Custer!" he declares. The audience erupts into wild applause and cheers. "For Custer!" they cry. In Buffalo Bill's stage show The Red Right Hand or The First Scalp for Custer, the scalping of Yellow Hand was an act of justice.

The story of Buffalo Bill's scalping of Yellow Hand would become a part of a mythology-a story that William F. Cody largely invented, just as he had invented his own legend and the "Wild West."

Cody was given the name Buffalo Bill for his talent in slaughtering buffalo. At first, Cody hunted buffalo for food. Buffalo were plentiful around the country, and hunting them was a popular sport, but Cody was obscenely prolific in killing-claiming to have shot dead 4,280 buffalo in just 18 months. He got a job with the railroad companies to kill buffalo in order to feed railroad workers. But quickly, the work became about more than killing buffalo; it became a part of killing Indians.

As American colonizers looked to expand their territory westward with the building of railroads in the mid- to late 19th century, they came into direct conflict with the Native people who had lived on those lands for centuries. Prime railroad territory was often prime grazing territory, and valuable resources like gold were found in places where the Sioux hunted. The U.S. government had declared de facto total war against Native people wherever they stood between the United States and its expansion west. The United States attacked Native people in every way it could-fighting combatants on the battlefield, killing women and children in their homes, spreading disease, forcing relocation-nothing was off limits. But still, Native communities fought to maintain their lands, and fought well.

In 1869, facing a protracted battle with Native tribes like the Sioux, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Phillip Sheridan as commanding general of the army and asked him to help solve the "Indian Problem" once and for all. Sheridan reached out to William Tecumseh Sherman, who had distinguished himself with his scorched-earth battle tactics during the Civil War, for advice. Sherman observed that wherever buffalo existed, there would be Native people, and they would continue to fight for land wherever the buffalo roamed. Sherman's advice to Sheridan was simple: remove the buffalo in order to remove the Indian.

Cody had gained a reputation as a skilled hunter, and he went to work for Sheridan, killing as many buffalo as he could. Men from all over the country boarded trains headed west in order to shoot buffalo with .50-caliber rifles from train windows. They killed thousands of buffalo a day, leaving the animals' lifeless bodies where they fell on the plains to rot. Wealthy and powerful men from the East Coast and even Europe rode west to join in on the fun, guided by "Buffalo Bill" Cody.

As journalists traveled with the wealthy men to document the hunts for newspapers across the country, Cody saw his first real opportunity for fame. He began partnering with the authors of dime-store novels and started commissioning plays about his exploits. Soon, Cody was regularly traveling back and forth-east to star in stage shows, and then back west to continue the wholesale slaughter of buffalo.
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As famous hunters like Cody popularized buffalo hunting and countless men joined in the killing, they found that they had to travel farther west in search of buffalo as numbers dwindled. The excitement following the widespread slaughter of buffalo began to wane. Cody, now having tasted celebrity, went in search of greater fame and found it in battle. An experienced scout with the U.S. Army, he signed on to join in the Plains Wars in 1876, announcing from the stage of one of his shows that he was leaving "play acting" in search of the "real thing." He packed his costume and went off to war.

Opportunity struck a little over a month after Cody joined the 5th Cavalry in southern Wyoming. A small band of Cheyenne warriors had been spotted heading west in pursuit of two U.S. military couriers. Cody gained permission from his superiors to take a small group of fighters to engage the warriors. Before leaving, Cody changed out of the typical sturdy, rough clothing that the rest of the cavalry wore and into his costume. Dressed in black velvet pants and a red silk shirt trimmed with silver buttons, Cody rode out to meet fame and fortune. The fight itself was unextraordinary, lasting only a few minutes. But after Cody killed Cheyenne warrior Hay-o-wei, whose name means "Yellow Hair," Cody scalped the dead warrior and took his warbonnet and weapons as trophies. According to Cody, he thrust the scalp in the air and shouted, "The first scalp for Custer!" Nobody else at the skirmish remembered him doing that. None of the warriors that the men fought had been at the battle of Little Big Horn, known as Custer's Last Stand, or had likely ever encountered the revered General George Armstrong Custer. Within a week of his killing Yellow Hair, exaggerated stories of Cody's bravery under fire began to reach the newspapers.

A few months after killing Yellow Hair, Cody left the cavalry to return to the stage. Each night, he donned the very outfit that he wore in battle to reenact a wildly dramatized version of the killing of Yellow Hair, now renamed by Cody as Yellow Hand and promoted to the position of chief, instead of simple warrior. While papers denounced the blatant glorification of violence, audiences packed the theater to see Cody wave the scalp of Yellow Hand in the air in victory.

Cody would go on to develop more stage productions showcasing the violent masculinity of the West to great success, leading to the 1883 debut of his most famous show, Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World.

The timing of Cody's Wild West was perfect. In the mid-19th century, white men in England and the United States began to worry about their young men who had it too easy; their wealth and comfort had made them soft. In the United States, a country still fighting to retain the land it had stolen from Native people, this softness could threaten the expansion of America across the continent. The call for white men of America to maintain physical power was not just political; it was a spiritual calling.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders Circus Poster Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images

Cody's Wild West show offered everything that white men in search of power and glory were looking for. In the show, white men were noble and brave. They fearlessly tamed animals and fought savages. "Indians," even when Cody allowed them to be something less than mindless killing machines, were seen as great relics of the past, conquered by the superiority of white men. The lure of Western adventure did not dissipate as these boys became men. Instead, they set out to star in their own stories of physical dominance.

Cody expanded his show from a small stage to an extravaganza the size of a small town. He hired real Native warriors to play Native warriors. Gunslingers and cowboys would join the show. Eventually he would add "Zulu warriors," Mexican "vaqueros," Turks, and dozens of other "exotic" performances. Buffalo Bill's Wild West became the most popular show in America, and he became one of the wealthiest and most famous entertainers in the world. Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, and many other dimestore-novel heroes would inspire an entire generation of young white men to head west in search of their own Manifest Destiny.

With the Wild West show gaining in popularity, Cody also strove to increase its respectability. Buffalo Bill's Wild West was not a "show"-it was, according to Cody, an educational event. It was a living history. People would come to Wild West to learn as much as to be entertained. Few questioned the supposed educational value or legitimacy of his project. And the racist, exaggerated stories of white male American bravery, leadership, and righteous victory became a part of our collective understanding of American history; these misleading legends persist to this day.

After decades of success, Wild West was eventually done in by financial mismanagement, Cody's drinking habits, and the rising popularity of movie theaters. Cody died on Jan.y 10, 1917, at age 70. He is still remembered as an icon of the American West: a soldier, a showman, a wildlife conservationist, and a friend of the Indian. He deliberately cultivated that reputation. As Cody interacted with the Native people who worked in his show, he became less comfortable with the scalping act that had launched his career. The scalp and warbonnet of Yellow Hair were removed from their stage-side case, never to be displayed again.

Cody would eventually speak against the scalping of Native people. He would also come to regret the massacre of buffalo that had given him his stage name. While the great buffalo hunt featuring live bison would always be a prominent part of Cody's show, he began to speak out against the buffalo hunting that he had popularized. Perhaps one of the most brutal of white male privileges is the opportunity to live long enough to regret the carnage you have brought upon others.
Adapted from MEDIOCRE: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo, now published in paperback by Seal Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. Copyright © 2021 by Ijeoma Oluo.

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What the True Story of Buffalo Bill Reveals About the Myth of the Wild West

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Buffalo Bill's scalping of Yellow Hand has become a part of that mythology-a story that William F. Cody largely invented, just as he invented his own legend and the "Wild West."

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William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846 - January 10, 1917), known as " Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but he lived for several years in his father's hometown in modern-day Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, before the family returned to the Midwest and settled in the Kansas Territory.

One of the most famous and well-known figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill's legend began to spread when he was only 23. Shortly thereafter he started performing in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars. He founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1883, taking his large company on tours in the United States and, beginning in 1887, in Great Britain and continental Europe.

Early life and education

In Kansas, the family was frequently persecuted by pro-slavery supporters. Cody's father spent time away from home for his safety. His enemies learned of a planned visit to his family and plotted to kill him on the way. Bill, despite his youth and being ill at the time, rode thirty miles (48km) to warn his father. Isaac Cody went to Cleveland, Ohio, to organize a group of thirty families to bring back to Kansas, to add to the antislavery population. During his return trip, he caught a respiratory infection which, compounded by the lingering effects of his stabbing and complications from kidney disease, led to his death in April 1857.

After his death, the family suffered financially. At age 11, Bill took a job with a freight carrier as a "boy extra". On horseback he would ride up and down the length of a wagon train and deliver messages between the drivers and workmen. Next, he joined Johnston's Army as an unofficial member of the scouts assigned to guide the United States Army to Utah, to put down a rumored rebellion by the Mormon population of Salt Lake City.

According to Cody's account in Buffalo Bill's Own Story, the Utah War was where he began his career as an "Indian fighter".

At the age of 14, in 1860, Cody was caught up in the "gold fever", with news of gold at Fort Colville and the Holcomb Valley Gold Rush in California. On his way to the goldfields, however, he met an agent for the Pony Express. He signed with them, and after building several stations and corrals, Cody was given a job as a rider. He worked at this until he was called home to his sick mother's bedside.

Military services

After his mother recovered, Cody wanted to enlist as a soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War but was refused because of his young age. He began working with a freight caravan that delivered supplies to Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming. In 1863, at age 17, he enlisted as a teamster with the rank of private in Company H, 7th Kansas Cavalry, and served until discharged in 1865.

The next year, Cody married Louisa Frederici. They had four children. Two died young, while the family was living in Rochester, New York. They and a third child are buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, in Rochester.

In 1866, he reunited with his old friend Wild Bill Hickok in Junction City, Kansas, then serving as a scout. Cody enlisted as a scout himself at Fort Ellsworth and scouted between there and Fort Fletcher (later renamed and moved to Fort Hays). He was attached as a scout, variously, to Captain George Augustus Armes ( Battle of the Saline River) and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (guide and impromptu horse race to Fort Larned). It was during this service at Fort Ellsworth that he met William Rose, with whom he would found the short-lived settlement of Rome.

In 1867, with the construction of the Kansas Pacific Railway completing through Hays City and Rome, Cody was granted a leave of absence to hunt buffalo to supply railroad construction workers with meat. This endeavor continued into 1868, which saw his hunting contest with William Comstock.

Cody returned to Army service in 1868. From his post in Fort Larned, he performed an exceptional feat of riding as a lone dispatch courier from Fort Larned to Fort Zarah (escaping brief capture), Fort Zarah to Fort Hays, Fort Hays to Fort Dodge, Fort Dodge to Fort Larned, and, finally, Fort Larned to Fort Hays, a total of 350 miles in 58 hours through hostile territory, covering the last 35 miles on foot. In response, General Philip Sheridan assigned him Chief of Scouts for the 5th Cavalry Regiment.

He was also Chief of Scouts for the Third Cavalry in later campaigns of the Plains Wars.

In January 1872, Cody was a scout for the highly publicized hunting expedition of the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia.

Medal of Honor

Cody was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1872 for documented gallantry above and beyond the call of duty as an Army scout in the Indian Wars. It was revoked in 1917, along with medals of 910 other recipients dating back to the Revolutionary War, when Congress decided to create a hierarchy of medals, designating the "Medal of Honor" as the highest military honor it could bestow. Subsequent regulations authorized the War Department to revoke prior Medal of Honor awards it considered not meeting requirements since the introduction of strict regulations promulgated under the 1917 law. Those regulations required the medal to be awarded for acts of bravery above and beyond the call of duty by officers or enlisted soldiers. Ironically, the law was enacted days before Buffalo Bill died, so he never knew a law might rescind the medal awarded to him. All civilian scout medals were rescinded since they did not appear to meet the basic criterion of being officers or enlisted soldiers, which had been expressly listed in every authorizing statute ever enacted for the Medal of Honor. Cody was one of five scouts affected. Their medals were stripped shortly after Cody died in 1917.

Cody's relatives objected, and, for over 72 years, they wrote repeatedly to the US Congress seeking reconsideration. All efforts failed, until a 1988 letter to the Senate from Cody's grandson received by the office of senator Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming, when a newly minted legislative assistant (K. Yale) took up the cause in 1989. The legal brief he drafted and submitted to the Department of Defense on behalf of the relatives of Buffalo Bill argued that civilian scouts were technically officers, as their native American counterparts were nominally scouts. However, they were given the rank and pay of officers - both for retention purposes. Also, scouts were the equivalent of "reconnaissance" for the military and thus provided highly valued services. In addition, a practical reason was to avoid mistaking them for opponents in skirmishes. Moreover, although civilian scouts might have normally been officers because of their highly valued skills, the military drawdown and related budget cuts after the Civil War left no billets available for the civilian scouts to fill, and thus they were relegated to a highly qualified status that treated them as valuable military assets without the designation or retirement benefits of officers. Nevertheless, they were treated as high-ranking military officials and had status of officers alongside their native American brethren. The brief argued for retroactive restoration of the Medal of Honor to Buffalo Bill, and the Department of Defense required the appeal to be adjudicated by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records. After months of deliberation, the Board agreed with the persuasive legal brief and made the decision to restore the Medal of Honor, not only to Buffalo Bill but also several other civilian scouts whose medals had also been rescinded.

Cody received the nickname "Buffalo Bill" after the American Civil War, when he had a contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo (American bison) meat. Cody is purported to have killed 4,282 buffalo in eighteen months in 1867 and 1868. Cody and another hunter, Bill Comstock, competed in an eight-hour buffalo-shooting match over the exclusive right to use the name, which Cody won by killing 68 animals to Comstock's 48.

Birth of the legend

In 1869, the 23-year-old Cody met Ned Buntline, who later published a story based on Cody's adventures (largely invented by the writer) in Street and Smith's New York Weekly and then published a highly successful novel, Buffalo Bill, King of the Bordermen, which was first serialized on the front page of the Chicago Tribune, beginning that December 15. Many other sequels followed by Buntline, Prentiss Ingraham and others from the 1870s through the early part of the twentieth century. Cody later became world-famous for Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a touring show which traveled around the United States, Great Britain, and Continental Europe. Audiences were enthusiastic about seeing a piece of the American West. Emilio Salgari, a noted Italian writer of adventure stories, met Buffalo Bill when he came to Italy and saw his show; Salgari later featured Cody as a hero in some of his novels.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West

In December 1872, Cody traveled to Chicago to make his stage debut with his friend Texas Jack Omohundro in The Scouts of the Prairie, one of the original Wild West shows produced by Ned Buntline. The effort was panned by critics - one critic compared Cody's acting to a "diffident schoolboy" - but the handsome performer was a hit with the sold-out crowds.

In 1873, Cody invited "Wild Bill" Hickok to join the group in a new play called Scouts of the Plains. Hickok did not enjoy acting and often hid behind scenery; in one show, he shot at the spotlight when it focused on him. He was therefore released from the group after a few months. Cody founded the Buffalo Bill Combination in 1874, in which he performed for part of the year while scouting on the prairies the rest of the year. The troupe toured for ten years.

In 1883, in the area of North Platte, Nebraska, Cody founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a circus-like attraction that toured annually. (Contrary to the popular misconception, the word Show was not a part of the title.) With his show, Cody traveled throughout the United States and Europe, and made many contacts. He stayed, for example, in Garden City, Kansas, in the presidential suite of the former Windsor Hotel. He was befriended by the mayor and state representative, a frontier scout, rancher, and hunter named Charles "Buffalo" Jones. In 1886, Cody and Nate Salsbury, his theatrical manager, entered into partnership with Evelyn Booth (1860-1901), a big-game hunter and scion of the aristocratic Booth family. It was at this time Buffalo Bill's Cowboy Band was organized. The band was directed by William Sweeney, a cornet player who served as leader of the Cowboy Band from 1883 until 1913. Sweeney handled all of the musical arrangements and wrote a majority of the music performed by the Cowboy Band.

In 1893, Cody changed the title to Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World. The show began with a parade on horseback, with participants from horse-culture groups that included the US and another military, cowboys, American Indians, and performers from all over the world in their best attire. Turks, gauchos, Arabs, Mongols and Georgians displayed their distinctive horses and colorful costumes. Visitors would see main events, feats of skill, staged races, and sideshows. Many historical western figures participated in the show. For example, Sitting Bull appeared with a band of 20 of his braves.

With his profits, Cody purchased a 4,000-acre (16-km²) ranch near North Platte, Nebraska, in 1886. The Scout's Rest Ranch included an eighteen-room mansion and a large barn for winter storage of the show's livestock.

In 1887, invited by the British businessman John Robinson Whitley, Cody took the show to Great Britain in celebration of the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, who attended a performance. It played in London and then in Birmingham and Salford, near Manchester, where it stayed for five months.

In 1889, the show toured Europe, and, in 1890, Cody met Pope Leo XIII. On March 8, 1890, a competition took place. Buffalo Bill had met some Italian butteri (a less-well-known sort of Italian equivalent of cowboys) and said his men were more skilled at roping calves and performing other similar actions. A group of Buffalo Bill's men challenged nine butteri, led by Augusto Imperiali [it], at Prati di Castello neighbourhood in Rome. The butteri easily won the competition. Augusto Imperiali became a local hero after the event: a street and a monument were dedicated to him in his hometown, Cisterna di Latina, and he was featured as the hero in a series of comic strips in the 1920s and 1930s.

Cody set up an independent exhibition near the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, which greatly contributed to his popularity in the United States. It vexed the promoters of the fair, who had rejected his request to participate.

In 1894, Edison Studios invited Buffalo Bill and his show to be filmed in an early silent film: Buffalo Bill.

In 1908, Pawnee Bill and Buffalo Bill joined forces and created the Two Bills show. That show was foreclosed on when it was playing in Denver, Colorado.

The Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill Film Company, based in New York City, produced a three-reel motion picture in 1912 titled The Life of Buffalo Bill. Cody himself appears in scenes that bookend the short film, a series of adventures presented in flashback as Buffalo Bill's dreams. The film had two other directors before it was successfully completed by John B. O'Brien. The film is in the collection of the Library of Congress.

Life in Cody, Wyoming

In 1895, Cody was instrumental in the founding of the town of Cody, the seat of Park County, in northwestern Wyoming. Today the Old Trail Town museum is at the center of the community and commemorates the traditions of Western life. Cody first passed through the region in the 1870s. He was so impressed by the development possibilities from irrigation, rich soil, grand scenery, hunting, and proximity to Yellowstone Park that he returned in the mid-1890s to start a town. Streets in the town were named after his associates: Beck, Alger, Rumsey, Bleistein, and Salsbury. The town was incorporated in 1901.

In November 1902, Cody opened the Irma Hotel, named after his daughter. He envisioned a growing number of tourists coming to Cody on the recently opened Burlington rail line. He expected that they would proceed up Cody Road, along the north fork of the Shoshone River, to visit Yellowstone Park. To accommodate travelers, Cody completed the construction of the Wapiti Inn and Pahaska Tepee in 1905 along Cody Road with the assistance of the artist and rancher Abraham Archibald Anderson.

Cody established the TE Ranch, located on the south fork of the Shoshone River about thirty-five miles from Cody. When he acquired the TE property, he stocked it with cattle sent from Nebraska and South Dakota. The new herd carried the TE brand. The late 1890s were relatively prosperous years for the Wild West show, and he bought more land to add to the ranch. He eventually held about eight thousand acres ( square miles; 32 square kilometers) of private land for grazing operations and ran about a thousand head of cattle. He operated a dude ranch, pack-horse camping trips, and big-game hunting business at and from the TE Ranch. In his spacious ranch house, he entertained notable guests from Europe and America.

Cody founded the local newspaper, The Cody Enterprise, in 1899 with Col. John Peake.

Cody published his autobiography, The Life and Adventures of Buffalo Bill, in 1879. Another autobiography, The Great West That Was: "Buffalo Bill's" Life Story, was serialized in Hearst's International Magazine from August 1916 to July 1917. and ghostwritten by James J. Montague. It contained several errors, in part because it was completed after Cody's death in January 1917.

Bill's Daughter, Irma Cody, died in Cody in 1918. She is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Cody, Wyoming.

Irrigation

Larry McMurtry, along with historians such as R. L. Wilson, asserted that at the turn of the 20th century, Cody was the most recognizable celebrity on Earth. While Cody's show brought an appreciation for the Western and American Indian cultures, he saw the American West change dramatically during his life. Bison herds, which had once numbered in the millions, were threatened with extinction. Railroads crossed the plains, barbed wire, and other types of fences divided the land for farmers and ranchers, and the once-threatening Indian tribes were confined to reservations. Wyoming's coal, oil and natural gas were beginning to be exploited toward the end of his life.

The Shoshone River was dammed for hydroelectric power and irrigation. In 1897 and 1899, Cody and his associates acquired from the State of Wyoming the right to take water from the Shoshone River to irrigate about 169,000 acres (680 km ²) of land in the Big Horn Basin. They began developing a canal to carry water diverted from the river, but their plans did not include a water storage reservoir. Cody and his associates were unable to raise sufficient capital to complete their plan. Early in 1903, they joined with the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners in urging the federal government to step in and help with irrigation in the valley.

The Shoshone Project became one of the first federal water development projects undertaken by the newly formed Reclamation Service, later known as the Bureau of Reclamation. After Reclamation took over the project in 1903, investigating engineers recommended constructing a dam on the Shoshone River in the canyon west of Cody. Construction of the Shoshone Dam started in 1905, a year after the Shoshone Project was authorized. When it was completed in 1910, it was the tallest dam in the world. Almost three decades after its construction, the name of the dam and reservoir was changed to Buffalo Bill Dam by an act of Congress.

Cody married Louisa Frederici on March 6, 1866, just a few days after his twentieth birthday. The couple met when Cody had traveled to St. Louis under his command during the Civil War.

Frederici stayed home with their four children in North Platte, while he stayed outside the home, hunting, scouting, and building up his acting career in the Wild West show. As Cody began to travel more frequently and to places farther from home, the couple grew more and more distant from each other.

Cody filed for divorce in 1904, after 38 years of marriage. Cody hoped to keep the divorce quiet, to not disrupt his show or his stage persona, but Frederici had other ideas.

Filing for divorce was scandalous in the early 20th century when marital unions were seen as binding for life. This furthered Cody's determination to get Frederici to agree to a "quiet legal separation," to avoid "war and publicity." The court records and depositions that were kept with the court case threatened to ruin Cody's respectability and credibility. His private life had not been open to the public before, and the application for divorce brought unwanted attention to the matter.

However, after the trial moved to court in February 1905, Cody changed his mind. Cody's change of mind was not due to any improvement in his relationship with Frederici but rather was due to the death of their daughter, Arta Louise, in 1904 from "organic trouble." With this weighing heavily on him, Cody sent a telegram to Frederici hoping to put aside "personal differences" for the funeral. Frederici was furious and refused any temporary reconciliation. When the trial proceeded a year later, in 1905, both their tempers were still hot. The final ruling was that "incompatibility was not grounds for divorce," so that the couple was to stay legally married. Cody returned to Paris to continue with the Wild West show and attempted to maintain a hospitable, but distant, relationship with his wife. The two reconciled in 1910, after which Frederici often traveled with her husband until he died in 1917.

Cody died on January 10, 1917. He was baptized in the Catholic Church the day before his death by Father Christopher Walsh of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. He received a full Masonic funeral. Upon the news of Cody's death, tributes were made by King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and President Woodrow Wilson. His funeral service was held at the Elks Lodge Hall in Denver. The governor of Wyoming, John B. Kendrick, a friend of Cody, led the funeral procession to the cemetery.

At the time of his death, Cody's once-great fortune had dwindled to less than $100,000 (approximately $2,284,200 in February 2024). He left his burial arrangements with his wife. She said that he had always said he wanted to be buried on Lookout Mountain, which was corroborated by their daughter Irma, Cody's sisters, and family friends. But other family members joined the people of Cody in saying that he should be buried in the town he founded.

On June 9, 1917, his show was sold to Archer Banker of Salina, Kansas, for $105,000 (approximately $2,398,360 today).

Philosophy

As a frontier scout, Cody respected Native Americans and supported their civil rights. He employed many Native Americans, as he thought his show offered them good pay with a chance to improve their lives. He described them as "the former foe, present friend, the American" and once said that "every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government."

Cody supported the rights of women. He said, "What we want to do is give women, even more, liberty than they have. Let them do any kind of work they see fit, and if they do it as well as men, give them the same pay." Women such as Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane had legendary roles in his show, and later in life Cody continued to hire and treat women fairly. Cody said in an interview in 1898, "Set that down in great big black type that Buffalo Bill favors woman suffrage... These fellows who prate about the women taking their places make me laugh... If a woman can do the same work that a man can do and do it just as well, she should have the same pay."

In his shows, the Indians were usually depicted attacking stagecoaches and wagon trains and were driven off by cowboys and soldiers. Many family members traveled with the men; Cody encouraged the wives and children of his Native American performers, as part of the show, to set up camp just as they would in their homelands. He wanted the paying public to see the human side of the "fierce warriors".

Cody was known as a conservationist who spoke out against hide-hunting and advocated the establishment of a hunting season.

Cody as a Freemason

Cody was active in the concordant bodies of the fraternal organization of Freemasonry having been initiated in Platte Valley Lodge No. 32, in North Platte, Nebraska, on March 5, 1870. He received his second and third degrees on April 2, 1870, and January 10, 1871, respectively. He became a Knight Templar in 1889 and received his 32nd degree in the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in 1894.

Legacy and honors

In 1872, Cody was awarded the Medal of Honor for service as a civilian scout to the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, for "gallantry in action" at Loupe Forke, Platte River, Nebraska. In 1917, after Congress revised the standards for the award, the U.S. Army removed from the rolls 911 medals previously awarded to civilians or for actions that would not warrant a Medal of Honor under the new higher standards. Cody's medal was among those revoked. In 1977, Congress began reviewing numerous cases; it reinstated the medals for Cody and four other civilian scouts on June 12, 1989.

The Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway through the Shoshone National Forest is a National Forest Scenic Byway and Wyoming Scenic Byway named after Buffalo Bill

Because of his funding and planning with The Shoshone Project The Buffalo Bill Dam, The Buffalo Bill Reservoir created by the dam, and the Buffalo Bill State Park at the reservoir are all named after him.

The Buffalo Bill Ranch State Park, also known as the Scout's Rest Ranch in North Platte, Nebraska was designated as a Nebraska State Historical Park in 1965, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021.

Cody was honored by two U.S. postage stamps. One was a fifteen-cent Great Americans series stamp.

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West was founded in Cody, Wyoming. The town is named in his honor.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West and the Progressive Image of American Indians is a collaborative project of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and the history department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with assistance from the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. This digital history project contains letters, official programs, newspaper reports, posters, and photographs. The project highlights the social and cultural forces that shaped how American Indians were defined, debated, contested, and controlled in this period. This project was based on the Papers of William F. Cody project of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

The National Museum of American History's Photographic History Collection at the Smithsonian Institution preserves and displays Gertrude Käsebier's photographs of the Wild West show. Michelle Delaney has published Buffalo Bill's Wild West Warriors: Photographs by Gertrude Käsebier.

Some Oglala Lakota people carry on family show business traditions from ancestors who were Carlisle Indian School alumni and worked for Buffalo Bill and other Wild West shows. Several national projects celebrate Wild Westers and Wild Westing. Wild Westers still perform in movies, powwows, pageants, and rodeos.

The Buffalo Bills, a National Football League team based in Buffalo, New York, were named after the entertainer. Other early football teams (such as the Buffalo Bills of the All-America Football Conference) used the nickname, solely for name recognition, as Cody had no special connection with the city of Buffalo. He did however live for a few years in nearby Rochester. Three of Buffalo Bill's children are buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York.

Euro Disneyland Railroad locomotive #1 is named the W. F. Cody in his honor.

In 1958, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Bubble O' Bill, an ice cream in the shape of a cowboy currently sold in Australia and previously available in the United States and United Kingdom, is named as such after Cody's stage name.

"The Scout" 1924, by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, in Cody, Wy

"Buffalo Bill - Plainsman" 1976, by Bob Scriver, in Cody, Wy

"The Spirit of Cody" 1999 by Jeffery B. Rudolph in Cody, Wy

"Born Under a Wandering Star" by Vic Payne in Cody, Wy

"Howdy Folks" 2000, by Jeffery Rudolph in Golden, Colorado

"Buffalo Bill Monument" 2004 by Charlie Norton in Oakley, Kansas

"Buffalo Bill " at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City

"Buffalo Bill Statue" 2006 in Glasgow

"America" 1876 by John Bell (sculptor), a section of the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, London features a western figure that bears a resemblance to Buffalo Bill standing next to an American Bison.

In Spanish: Buffalo Bill para niños

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Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids

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Close your eyes and imagine you live in America in the 1800s, a time before cars, the Internet and TV. You are riding in a wagon pulled by your family's best two horses. Your mom and dad are up front and you and your siblings are in the back. You look around and see many other families also riding towards the main event. When the wagon stops you climb out and hurry to a stand where your father buys tickets and hands you one. You give your ticket to attendant then rush into the large arena and climb up the stairs to what you think is the best seat with the best view. You smell popcorn and your mother hands you a bag with a smile. You take a bite and wait in anticipation for the show to begin.

Suddenly a gun fires and you hear the thunder of hooves as a stampede of horses fill the arena. Dust clouds fill the air. Indians whoop and holler. Army men shoot their guns and flash their swords. Soon a battle begins. But this isn't a real battle, it's just a show, and the crowd watches in amazement as the showmen act out a battle from American history. An soldier cries out and falls off his horses. An Indian charges and waves his tomahawk. The smell of gunpowder fills the air. Soon the dust and the smoke settles. The battle is finished. The audience cheers wildly.

Suddenly a lone man rides into the arena, waving his hat. From his leather coat, long hair and mustache, you instantly recognize the rider as the greatest showman of the Wild West - Buffalo Bill Cody. You wave your hat and cheer too. The show has just begun and you can't wait to see what comes next.

Bill Cody was born in 1847 on a farm outside Le Claire, Iowa to Isaac and Mary Ann Cody. When Bill was young slavery was still happening in some parts of the country. Bill's father, Isaac, was very much against it. Many people didn't like Bill's family for this reason. One day when his father was speaking out against slavery someone hurt him very badly. After this Isaac had to move away to avoid his enemies. Later, the same group planned to catch Isaac and hurt him again. When Bill heard what they were going to do to his father, he jumped on his horse and rode 30 miles to warn him before they came.

Not long afterward Bill's father became very sick and soon passed away. This left Bill to help take care of his family when he was only 11 years old. His first job was with a wagon company. He rode his horse up and down the train of wagons and delivered messages to help them keep in touch with each other.

When Bill was 14 years old gold was discovered in California and many Americans hurried there in hopes to mine gold and become rich. This was called a Gold Rush. Bill left on his horse for California, but along the way he found a job delivering mail from one place to another. Because there were no telephones, mail by horse was the only way people could talk to each other.

A few years later, Bill joined the Army's 3rd Cavalry, which was fighting the Native Indians in what was called the Plains Wars. Bill was the Chief of the Scouts. His job was to ride ahead and see if they were going to be attacked. He fought in sixteen battles with the army.

While the army was on the trail they needed food, so one of Bill's jobs was to hunt buffalo. Buffalo are huge, wild, hairy animals with horns that roamed the plains during the Wild West. At this time there were hundreds and thousands of buffalo and Bill became a very skilled hunter of them. Once, another hunter with the same name as Bill challenged him to see who could hunt the most buffalo within 8 hours. Whoever won would keep the name "Buffalo Bill." The race was on. Bill took off on his horse and raced around the massive herd of buffalo, aiming his long rifle, and firing, picking them off one at a time. He kicked his horse faster and faster, aiming and firing, aiming and firing, buffalos dropping at every shot. When the time was up, someone rode around and counted the buffalo. Bill had killed more beasts than the other man and won the name "Buffalo Bill."

Often people came from the East Coast or other parts of the world to visit the Wild West and hunt the famous buffalo. Buffalo Bill started taking these visitors on trips to explore the West and hunt. Some of the people who went with Bill wrote about him in the newspapers and someone even made him a character in a book. Soon many people knew about this famous hunter of the American West.

A few years later Buffalo Bill joined a traveling show called The Scouts of the Prairie. Together with the other actors he would act out famous battles for audiences. These shows were very popular and often they performed to sold out crowds. Everyone was excited to see the famous Buffalo Bill Cody and gun fighters such as "Wild Bill" Hickok.

Before long, Bill had the idea to start his own show and called it Buffalo Bill's Wild West. He and his crew dressed in colorful costumes and acted out battles with guns and horses while a live band played music. Many of the acts included horses and their riders from all across the world from Spanish Cowboys to Turks, Arabs, and Mongols from Asia. The American Indian war hero Sitting Bull was in the show along with famous women sharp shooters such as Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane. People came from all across the country to be entertained by Buffalo Bill and his talented performers.

Later Buffalo Bill's West West show took a ship across the ocean to Europe, where they performed before such royalty as the Queen of England and the Kings of France and Germany. They also performed nearby the Chicago's Worlds Fair and were a huge hit.

Buffalo Bill used the money from his world famous show to found his own town in Wyoming and called it Cody. There he bought land and built a beautiful hotel and brought in cattle for a very large ranch. He designed Cody so people from all over could visit the countryside and pretend to be cowboys, go on horseback rides, and hunt animals in the woods. These activities were some of his great loves and he wanted to share them with others.

Even though Bill fought against Indians early in his life, he later had great respect for them and their simple way of life. He knew the reason many of them attacked settlers was because they had been treated poorly in the first place. He felt bad for what had been done to them, that they had been driven from their lands by the new Americans. He believed they should be treated with respect and hired many of them to work for his show and paid the same as everyone else.

Bill spent much of his time in nature, so he came to have great respect for the land and animals of the American West. He later did what he could to help preserve these beautiful places. This is called conservationism. Americans like he and Teddy Roosevelt believed that much of the land should be kept safe, so it can be enjoyed by everyone. This is why we have National Parks today.

Today spend a moment thinking about what it would have been like to start taking care of your family like Bill did at a young age. It was hard and probably scary at times, but Bill learned new skills such as hunting and horseback riding. When you face challenges remember that sticking with things until you get better is the only way to learn and grow. So be sure to face hard things with courage and keep on trying.

Like Buffalo Bill you can use your imagination to come up with new ideas to entertain others. Spend some time thinking of an act or show you could perform and share it with a family member or a friend. If you can make someone else smile or laugh, that is a very good thing.

Also, spend a little more time outside. There is much to appreciate outdoors, even if it is your backyard. Take the time to look at the sky and clouds and the trees and the listen to the birds in them. There is much to be enjoyed in the natural world around you if you take the time to notice it.

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History of Buffalo Bill Cody for Kids | Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids | Homework Help

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Close your eyes and imagine you live in America in the 1800s, a time before cars, the Internet and TV. You are riding in a wagon pulled by your family’s best two horses. Your mom and dad are up front and you and your siblings are in the back. You look around and see many […]

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The early trappers and fur traders, who came to be known in the West as Mountain Men, were the pioneer explorers of Colorado.

Tom Tobin was born in St. Louis in 1823 and known at the time by the outdated term "free colored." After heading for the Taos area as a youth, he became a trapper, an adept mountain man and guide, and a scout for the U.S. Army. He explored much of southern Colorado, including the Pueblo area, and on occasion worked as a bounty hunter. He associated with the likes of Kit Carson, "Wild Bill" Hickok, and William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody.

Born into slavery in 1805, Virginian James P. Beckwourth joined expeditions to the lead mines of Illinois in 1822 and the Rocky Mountains in 1824 before becoming a fur trader and trapper. Later, he was captured by Crow Tribe and then married into the tribe and became a well-respected member of the tribe. He discovered Beckwourth Pass (1850) and established Beckwourth Trail (1851) before settling in Denver in 1859, where he became a storekeeper and military scout. He died in 1866. He narrated his life story to Thomas D. Bonner, a traveling justice of the peace. The book was published in New York and London in 1856 as The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth: Mountaineer, Scout and Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians .

Edward Rose, also known as Five Scalps, Cut Nose, and Nez Coupe, was the son of a white trader father and a Cherokee and African American mother. His heritage and knowledge of Crow and Arikara culture earned him a job as a guide and interpreter for several expeditions, including Jedediah Smith's to the Rocky Mountains and Colonel Henry Atkinson's Yellowstone expedition in 1825. He returned to live among the Crow, earning the name "Five Scalps" and became a famous war chief, later dying on the Yellowstone River during an Arikara attack in 1832.

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The early trappers and fur traders, who came to be known in the West as Mountain Men, were the pioneer explorers of Colorado.

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The early trappers and fur traders, who came to be known in the West as Mountain Men, were the pioneer explorers of Colorado.

Tom Tobin was born in St. Louis in 1823 and known at the time by the outdated term "free colored." After heading for the Taos area as a youth, he became a trapper, an adept mountain man and guide, and a scout for the U.S. Army. He explored much of southern Colorado, including the Pueblo area, and on occasion worked as a bounty hunter. He associated with the likes of Kit Carson, "Wild Bill" Hickok, and William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody.

Born into slavery in 1805, Virginian James P. Beckwourth joined expeditions to the lead mines of Illinois in 1822 and the Rocky Mountains in 1824 before becoming a fur trader and trapper. Later, he was captured by Crow Tribe and then married into the tribe and became a well-respected member of the tribe. He discovered Beckwourth Pass (1850) and established Beckwourth Trail (1851) before settling in Denver in 1859, where he became a storekeeper and military scout. He died in 1866. He narrated his life story to Thomas D. Bonner, a traveling justice of the peace. The book was published in New York and London in 1856 as The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth: Mountaineer, Scout and Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians .

Edward Rose, also known as Five Scalps, Cut Nose, and Nez Coupe, was the son of a white trader father and a Cherokee and African American mother. His heritage and knowledge of Crow and Arikara culture earned him a job as a guide and interpreter for several expeditions, including Jedediah Smith's to the Rocky Mountains and Colonel Henry Atkinson's Yellowstone expedition in 1825. He returned to live among the Crow, earning the name "Five Scalps" and became a famous war chief, later dying on the Yellowstone River during an Arikara attack in 1832.

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The early trappers and fur traders, who came to be known in the West as Mountain Men, were the pioneer explorers of Colorado.

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Kids learn about the Pony Express from the Old West. Riders would swap horses at stations to deliver the mail faster to and from California.

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From 1866 until 1889, the Pony Express logo was used by stagecoach and freight company Wells Fargo, which provided secure mail service. The United States Postal Service (USPS) used "Pony Express" as a trademark for postal services in the US.

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The Pony Express was a system that delivered mail on horseback between Missouri and California. The service lasted for only about a year and a half in the early 1860s.…

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National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

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The Surprisingly Short History of the Pony Express

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The Original Cowboys Hollywood Never Told You About | WHAT THE PAST?

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Aw snap! Google Earth isn't supported on your browser. You may need to update your browser or use a different browser. Please see our system requirements for more information. Chrome is a great choice and you can download it here.

Or if you're feeling adventurous, you can try Earth anyway by choosing an option below.

Learn more about Google Earth.

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Aw snap! Google Earth isn't supported on your browser. You may need to update your browser or use a different browser. Please see our system requirements for more information. Chrome is a great choice and you can download it here. Or if you're feeling adventurous, you can try Earth anyway by choosing an option below.

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Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express (read aloud or read along)

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William Frederick Cody

By Paul Fees, Former Curator
Buffalo Bill Museum

William F. Cody, age 11.

William Frederick Cody (1846 - 1917), the boy who would become Buffalo Bill, was born in a log cabin near LeClaire, Iowa Territory, on February 26, 1846. His father, Isaac, worked variously as a trader, a surveyor, and as overseer for an absentee landowner.

Isaac Cody himself was a product of westering pioneers. The first Codys in America were Huguenots who fled France for the Isle of Jersey to escape religious persecution. By 1698 they owned land in Massachusetts. Isaac was born in Ontario in 1811 and grew up in Ohio. Twice widowed, he wed schoolteacher Mary Bonsell Laycock in 1840 in Cincinnati. She was descended of Pennsylvania Quaker pioneers. With Martha, Isaac's five-year-old daughter from his first marriage, they moved to Scott County, Iowa, where six of their seven children were born: Samuel, 1841; Julia, 1843; William, 1846; Eliza, 1848; Helen, 1850; and May, 1853.

Only prolonged illness kept Isaac from striking out for California during the gold rush. After the accidental death of Samuel in 1853, the Codys headed west, moving briefly to Missouri then to Kansas where Isaac supplied hay and wood to Ft. Leavenworth and traded with the Kickapoo Indians. Another son, Charles, was born in 1855. Isaac, a man of principal and an active civic leader, was stabbed in 1854 while making a speech against slavery. The attack did not deter him from his economic or political activities, but its lingering effects led to his death in 1857.

Bill ("Willie" to his family) and Julia supported and cared for the younger children and their ailing mother. Martha left to marry and died shortly thereafter. Bill took a job as a herder and mounted messenger with Russell, Majors, and Waddell, the Leavenworth freighting firm and organizers of the Pony Express. A year later he accompanied a wagon train to distant and exotic Fort Laramie.

During the next two years young Cody trapped beaver, trekked to the gold fields of Colorado, and found time for several months of schooling. He also joined ("to my shame," he admitted) in some of the "border war" mischief by anti-slavery gangs of Jayhawkers.

William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, May 1909. Garlow Collection. P.69.55

It has been generally assumed, not without controversy, that Cody rode for the Pony Express at age fourteen or fifteen. Because of internal contradictions in his autobiography, scholars have made a good argument for denying his participation. However, most of his actions in 1860 - 1861 cannot be independently verified. The crucial role he and his Wild West show later played in commemorating the Pony Express, and his close friendship with men central to the Pony Express, both cloud the issue and in some ways make the debate irrelevant. In the absence of other records, the most it may be possible to say is that as a skilled horseman, an adventurous youth, and an erstwhile employee of the company, Bill was in the right place at the right time.

Mary Cody died on November 22, 1863. Bill mourned deeply. Early in 1864 he enlisted in the 7th Kansas Cavalry, a volunteer Union regiment that included many of his Jayhawking comrades, and fought honorably to the end of the Civil War. In St. Louis he met Louisa Frederici and married her there in 1866. They moved to Kansas to be with his family, which had been further bereaved by the death of little brother Charles late in 1864.

Bill and Louisa had four children, only two of whom survived to bear children of their own. Arta Lucille (1866 - 1904) was born at Leavenworth; Kit Carson (1870 - 1876) and Orra Maude (1872 - 1883) at Ft. McPherson, Nebraska; and Irma Louise (1883 - 1918) at North Platte.

Like his father, Bill seldom stayed long at home. After a stint as a stagecoach driver and a half-hearted effort at inn keeping near Leavenworth, he set out to make a living on the plains. His talents and physical gifts combined with an apparent fearlessness made him successful at contract jobs for the Army and railroad. Supplying 4,280 buffalo to feed railway construction workers during eight months in 1867 - 1868 earned him his nickname, "Buffalo Bill." General Philip Sheridan considered him a modest and well-spoken natural leader and made him chief scout for the 5th Cavalry in 1868. During his years as scout (1868 - 1872; 1874; 1876), he fought in nineteen battles and skirmishes, was wounded once, was cited and rewarded for valor and "extraordinarily good services," won the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry, and a month after Custer's defeat, he killed a Cheyenne warrior in hand-to-hand single combat.

Sheridan assigned Cody in 1872 to guide the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia on one of the century's most celebrated hunts. The resulting publicity helped launch Cody's acting career when later that year he and Texas Jack Omohundro opened in Chicago in "Scouts of the Prairie" written by dime-novelist Ned Buntline. The "flavor of realism and nationality" that one perceptive critic found in the melodrama defined not only Cody's stage plays for the next dozen years but also his great arena show, Buffalo Bill's Wild West (1883 - 1913). Better than any other medium of its day, the Wild West tied America's development to "the winning of the West." The show put it into a clear narrative format and presented it to millions of people in the U.S. and abroad. In Europe, Buffalo Bill is still one of the most recognizable of Americans.

William F. Cody, ca. 1900.

Cody invested his earnings in the modern West-mining in Arizona, ranching in Nebraska, town building in Wyoming, filmmaking, and tourism. Most of his ventures did not return profits in his lifetime. When his Wild West show failed in 1913, his indebtedness forced him to tour through 1916 as an attraction with other shows. His death in Denver on January 10, 1917, of kidney failure, led the press to lament "the passing of the Great West." He was accorded a state funeral, still perhaps the largest in Colorado history.

In his person, Cody reconciled for Americans the seemingly contradictory values of individualism and wilderness on the one hand with those of civilization and progress on the other. A Chicago newspaper editor summed it up: "He has been more than picturesque; he has been worthwhile."

Additional Reading:

Hedren, Paul. First Scalp for Custer. Lincoln, Nebraska, 1987.

Hutton, Paul Andrew, ed. Ten Days on the Plains. Dallas, Texas, 1985.

Rosa, Joseph and Robin May. Buffalo Bill and his Wild West. Lawrence, Kansas, 1989.

Russell, Don. The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill. Norman, Oklahoma, 1960.

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William Frederick Cody (1846 - 1917), the boy who would become Buffalo Bill, was born in a log cabin near LeClaire, Iowa Territory, on February 26, 1846.

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About this Item

Title

Parade of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. No. 2

Other Title

Variant title from Edison motion pictures: Buffalo Bill's Wild West show

Summary

Crowds of people watch a parade of Buffalo Bill's Wild West in Newark, New Jersey. In the procession are mounted cavalry, American Indians, Arabs, Cossacks, Turks, Abysinnians, hosts of other riders, and many carriages.

Names

Heise, William, production, camera

Thomas A. Edison, Inc

Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)

Niver (Kemp) Collection (Library of Congress)

Created / Published

United States : Edison Manufacturing Co., 1898.

Headings

- Buffalo Bill,--1846-1917

- Buffalo Bill's Wild West Company

Genre

Filmed parades

Actualities (Motion pictures)

Peep shows (Motion pictures)

Silent films

Short films

Nonfiction films

Notes

- 38212 U.S. Copyright Office

- Copyright: Thomas A. Edison; 22June1898; 38212.

- Appearing: Buffalo Bill Cody and his Congress of Rough Riders of the World.

- Camera: William Heise.

- Photographed in Newark, New Jersey on May 20, 1898.

- Summary derived from an account in the Phonoscope, November, 1898, as quoted in Musser's Edison motion pictures.

- Paper print shelf number (LC 1795) was changed when the paper prints were re-housed.

- Sources used: Niver, K. Early motion pictures, p. 244; Musser, C. Edison motion pictures, 1890-1900, p. 442.

- Early motion pictures : the Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress / by Kemp R. Niver. Library of Congress. 1985.

Medium

1 video file (digital, MPEG-4) (ca. 2 min.) : si., b&w.

viewing print 1 film reel of 1 (55 ft.) : si., b&w ; 16 mm.

dupe neg pic 1 film reel of 1 (55 ft.) : si., b&w ; 16 mm.

dupe neg pic (copy 2) 1 film reel of 1 (55 ft.) : si., b&w ; 16 mm.

master pos pic 1 film reel of 1 (ca. 50 ft.) : si., b&w ; 16 mm.

paper pos 1 roll of 1 (ca. 150 ft.) : b&w ; 35 mm.

paper pos (copy 2) 1 roll of 1 (ca. 150 ft.) : b&w ; 35 mm.

Call Number/Physical Location

FLA 4809 (viewing print)

FRA 1818 (dupe neg pic)

FRA 1819 (dupe neg pic, copy 2)

FRB 0882 (master pos pic)

Box 0182A (paper pos)

Box 5145A (paper pos, copy 2)

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

Access Advisory

Restricted: video files available on-site only. Access by appointment.

Online Format

Format

Contributor

Language

Subject

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright or other restrictions in the vast majority of motion pictures in these collections. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.

In rare cases, copyrighted motion pictures are made available by special permission to the Library and may be used only for educational purposes. For example, the Gershwin home movies fall within this category. Rights assessment is your responsibility. No registration information exists for some titles, and reproduction of some titles may be restricted by privacy rights, publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Additionally, some works may still be protected by copyright in the United States or some foreign countries. The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions.

Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. You should consult the catalog information that accompanies each item for specific information. This catalog data provides the details known to the Library of Congress regarding the corresponding item and may assist you in making independent assessments of the legal status of these items for their desired uses. You should also consult restrictions associated with donations to the Library.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.

More about Copyright and other Restrictions.

For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Thomas A. Edison, Inc, Paper Print Collection, and Niver. Parade of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. No. 2. produceds by Heise, Williamuction, Camera United States: Edison Manufacturing Co, 1898. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2015600173/.

APA citation style:

Thomas A. Edison, I., Paper Print Collection & Niver. (1898) Parade of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. No. 2. Heise, W., prod United States: Edison Manufacturing Co. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2015600173/.

MLA citation style:

Thomas A. Edison, Inc, Paper Print Collection, and Niver. Parade of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. No. 2. prod by Heise, Williamuction, Camera United States: Edison Manufacturing Co, 1898. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2015600173/>.

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Parade of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. No. 2

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Crowds of people watch a parade of Buffalo Bill's Wild West in Newark, New Jersey. In the procession are mounted cavalry, American Indians, Arabs, Cossacks, Turks, Abysinnians, hosts of other riders, and many carriages.

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About this Item

Title

The life of Buffalo Bill. Parts I-III

Other Title

Life of Buffalo Bill

Erroneous title: Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Pawnee Bill's Far East

Summary

Several events from Buffalo Bill Cody's life are reenacted in the form of dreamed flashbacks. Many scenes are from the Wild West show scenarios, including Buffalo Bill taking the scalp of Yellow Hand, an Indian attack on a wagon train, and a posse chase of a bandit named "Buck McCandell". The film is bookended by shots of the real Buffalo Bill preparing to nap at the beginning, and then awakening at the end.

Names

O'Brien, John B., direction

Buffalo Bill & Pawnee Bill Film Co

Ernst (Louise) Collection (Library of Congress)

Created / Published

United States : Buffalo Bill & Pawnee Bill Film Co., 1912.

Headings

- Buffalo Bill,--1846-1917--Drama

- Entertainers--United States--Drama

- Scouts (Reconnaissance)--West (U.S.)--Drama

- Pioneers--West (U.S.)--Drama

- Frontier and pioneer life--West (U.S.)--Drama

Genre

Biographical films

Historical films

Short films

Silent films

Fiction films

Notes

- J170003 J170004 J170005 U.S. Copyright Office

- Copyright: Buffalo Bill & Pawnee Bill Film Co.; 8Jun1912: J170003-05.

- Appearing: William F. Cody.

- Beginning and end titles lacking.

- Title of film from interior title. Although interior titles exist for part II and part III, and there are three copyright registration numbers, the three parts do not appear to have been distributed or shown separately.

- Sources used: Sandra Sagala's Buffalo Bill on the silver screen, p. 32-52; The William F. Cody Archive WWW sited, viewed June 8, 2015.

- 16 mm dupe neg pic renumbered: FRA 3682 to FSC 0781.

- Running time for digital viewing copy in Packard Campus Workflow Application (PCWA) is only 26 minutes. NSR and PCWA files were compared for content and are identical. Difference in running time is probably due to different playback speed.

Medium

1 video file (digital) (41 min.) : si., b&w.

viewing print 1 film reel (940 ft.) : si., b&w ; 16 mm.

dupe neg pic 1 film reel (940 ft.) : si., b&w ; 16 mm.

non-viewing print 1 film reel (436 ft.) : si., b&w ; 16 mm.

Call Number/Physical Location

FLA 1402 (viewing print)

FSC 0781 (dupe neg pic)

FRA 3683 (non-viewing print)

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

Online Format

Format

Contributor

Location

Language

Subject

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright or other restrictions in the vast majority of motion pictures in these collections. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.

In rare cases, copyrighted motion pictures are made available by special permission to the Library and may be used only for educational purposes. For example, the Gershwin home movies fall within this category. Rights assessment is your responsibility. No registration information exists for some titles, and reproduction of some titles may be restricted by privacy rights, publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Additionally, some works may still be protected by copyright in the United States or some foreign countries. The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions.

Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. You should consult the catalog information that accompanies each item for specific information. This catalog data provides the details known to the Library of Congress regarding the corresponding item and may assist you in making independent assessments of the legal status of these items for their desired uses. You should also consult restrictions associated with donations to the Library.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.

More about Copyright and other Restrictions.

For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Buffalo Bill & Pawnee Bill Film Co, and Ernst. The life of Buffalo Bill. Parts I-III. directeds by O'Brien, John B.Ection United States: Buffalo Bill & Pawnee Bill Film Co, 1912. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2015600175/.

APA citation style:

Buffalo Bill & Pawnee Bill Film Co & Ernst. (1912) The life of Buffalo Bill. Parts I-III. O'Brien, J. B. E., dir United States: Buffalo Bill & Pawnee Bill Film Co. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2015600175/.

MLA citation style:

Buffalo Bill & Pawnee Bill Film Co, and Ernst. The life of Buffalo Bill. Parts I-III. dir by O'Brien, John B.Ection United States: Buffalo Bill & Pawnee Bill Film Co, 1912. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2015600175/>.

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Several events from Buffalo Bill Cody's life are reenacted in the form of dreamed flashbacks. Many scenes are from the Wild West show scenarios, including Buffalo Bill taking the scalp of Yellow Hand, an Indian attack on a wagon train, and a posse chase of a bandit named "Buck McCandell".

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Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more

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Search Results " Chronicling America " Library of Congress

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Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.

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Image 4 of An autobiography of Buffalo Bill (Colonel W.F. Cody)

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On cover : Buffalo Bill's life story. Also available in digital form. Mamoulian Summer Intern Project, th19 2009-07-28 LAC tnb 2021-12-09 update (2 cards)

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About this Item

Title

Other Title

Variant title from Maguire & Baucus catalogue, April 1897: Bucking bronco

Variant title from Edison motion pictures 1890-1900: Bucking bronchos

Summary

"A fine exhibition of horsemanship by Lee Martin, a genuine cowboy. This particular broncho is an unusually wicked one. 40 feet"--Edison films catalog, no. 105.

Names

Dickson, W. K.-L. (William Kennedy-Laurie), 1860-1935, production

Heise, William, camera

Thomas A. Edison, Inc

Created / Published

United States : Edison Manufacturing Co., [1894]

Headings

- Martin, Lee--(Cowboy)

- Hammitt, Frank,--1869-1903

- Buffalo Bill's Wild West & Congress of Rough Riders of the World

- Bronc riding--United States

- Cowboys--United States

- Horsemanship--United States

Genre

Actualities (Motion pictures)

Silent films

Short films

Nonfiction films

Notes

- Duration: 0:21 at 30 fps.

- Sources used: Musser, C. Edison motion pictures 1890-1900, p. 140-141; "Before the Kinetograph", the Orange journal, October 18, 1894, p. 5 (in Edison motion pictures, 1890-1900); Raff & Gammon. Price list of films, ca. June 1895, p. 1 [MI]; Maguire & Baucus. Edison and international photographic films catalogue, April 1897, p. 3 [MI]; Edison films catalog, no. 105, July 1901, p. 49 [MI].

- Camera, William Heise.

- Appearing: Lee Martin, Frank Hammitt.

- Filmed October 16, 1894, at the Edison laboratory in West Orange, N.J.

- Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as digital files.

- Lee Martin and Frank Hammitt were cowboy stars appearing in Buffalo Bill's Wild West. In October, 1894, the two cowboys brought their favorite horses, Sunfish and El Diablo, to appear before Edison kinetograph in West Orange, New Jersey. The interior of the Black Maria studio was not large enough to accomodate the horses, so an area to the rear of the studio was fenced off for the cowboys. Martin gave an exhibition of broncho busting on Sunfish, while Hammitt sat on the fence and fired off his revolver.

- 35 mm viewing print renumbered: FEC 8099 to FYA 3355.

Medium

viewing print 1 film reel of 1 (39 ft.) : si., b&w ; 35 mm.

Call Number/Physical Location

Source Collection

Hendricks (Gordon) Collection (Library of Congress)

Repository

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division Washington, D. C. 20540 USA dcu

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

Online Format

Format

Contributor

Location

Language

Subject

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright or other restrictions in the vast majority of motion pictures in these collections. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.

In rare cases, copyrighted motion pictures are made available by special permission to the Library and may be used only for educational purposes. For example, the Gershwin home movies fall within this category. Rights assessment is your responsibility. No registration information exists for some titles, and reproduction of some titles may be restricted by privacy rights, publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Additionally, some works may still be protected by copyright in the United States or some foreign countries. The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions.

Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. You should consult the catalog information that accompanies each item for specific information. This catalog data provides the details known to the Library of Congress regarding the corresponding item and may assist you in making independent assessments of the legal status of these items for their desired uses. You should also consult restrictions associated with donations to the Library.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.

More about Copyright and other Restrictions.

For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Heise, William, Camera, and Inc Thomas A. Edison. Bucking Broncho. produceds by Dickson, W. K.-L. , Uction [United States: Edison Manufacturing Co, 1894] Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/00694113/.

APA citation style:

Heise, W. & Thomas A. Edison, I. (1894) Bucking Broncho. Dickson, W. K. -., prod [United States: Edison Manufacturing Co] [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/00694113/.

MLA citation style:

Heise, William, Camera, and Inc Thomas A. Edison. Bucking Broncho. prod by Dickson, W. K.-L. , Uction [United States: Edison Manufacturing Co, 1894] Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/00694113/>.

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