BUFFALO BILL (William Frederick Cody) (1846-1917).
Buffalo Bill was the last of the famous American frontier scouts. He was a sharp-shooter and an expert guide and hunter. His Wild West shows did much to establish the popular image of the Old West.
Buffalo Bill, whose real name was William Frederick Cody, was born in Le Claire, Iowa, on February 26,1846. At the age of 14 he was carrying mail for the Pony Express. During the U.S. Civil War, he was a Union Army scout. Later he hunted bison (often called buffalo). It is said that Cody killed 69 bison in one day, and over 4,000 in 8 months. He became known everywhere as Buffalo Bill. When war with the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians broke out in 1875, Cody again became a scout for the cavalry. He is said to have fought a duel with Yellow Hand, the son of a Cheyenne chief, and killed him.
In 1883, Cody organized his famous traveling Wild West shows. These shows included a huge cast of cowboys, Indians, and sharp-shooters, as well as herds of bison, elk, ponies, steers, and wild horses. Historic events such as Custer's Last Stand were reenacted. Sitting Bull, the Sioux chief whose warriors had helped defeat General Custer's soldiers, traveled with the show in 1885. Annie Oakley, the famous sharpshooter, was another star. Thousands of people in the United States, Canada, and Europe saw the show before Cody lost it in 1913 because of debts.
Cody died on January 10, 1917. His grave and the Cody Memorial Museum are on top of Lookout Mountain in Colorado. Other Cody museums include the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, where scenes from the old Wild West shows are recreated, and Buffalo Bill's Ranch State Historical Park in North Platte, Nebraska.
