Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill (February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917)
was born William Frederick Cody in the American state of Iowa. He was one of the most colorful figures of the Old
West, and was perhaps a bit misunderstood.
Nickname and work life
He assumed his nickname for supplying Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo
meat. The nickname originally referred to Bill Comstock. Cody won the nickname from him in a buffalo killing contest 69 to 48.
He worked many jobs, having been a trapper, bullwhacker, "Fifty-Niner" in Colorado, a Pony Express rider in 1860, wagonmaster,
stagecoach driver, a Civil War soldier, and even a hotel manager. But he became famous for his Wild West
Show.
Life
William Cody received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for "gallantry in action" while serving as a civilian scout for the 3rd cavalry. His medal was revoked on
February 5, 1917, 26 days after his death, because he was a civilian, and thus ineligible for the award under new guidelines for
the award in 1917. The medal was restored in 1989 by the U.S. Army
After being a frontiersman, Buffalo Bill entered show business. He toured the
United States in plays based on his Western adventures, and, in Omaha,
Nebraska in 1883, founded the "Buffalo Bill Wild West Show," a circus-like
attraction that toured annually: Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull both appeared in the show. In 1887 he performed in London in celebration of the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, and toured Europe in 1889. He set up an exhibition near the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 (properly the World's Columbian Exposition), which greatly contributed to his popularity.
He saw the American West dramatically change during his tumultuous
life, seeing Wyoming's coal, oil and natural gas resources begin to be
exploited towards the end of his life. The Buffalo Bill Dam was built on the Shoshone River after 1904, a dam used for hydroelectric power and irrigation.
He died on January 10, 1917. By his own request, he was buried on Lookout
Mountain (Colorado), west of the city of Denver, Colorado, on
the edge of the Rocky Mountains overlooking the Great Plains.
Legacy
Buffalo Bill Cody in
1903
Buffalo Bill may have been a rough-hewn outdoorsman, but was something of a liberal, pushing for rights of American Indians as
well as women, and despite his history of killing the buffalo, he spoke out for conservation of this American symbol. He spoke out against hide-hunting and pushed
for a hunting season.
Having been a frontier scout who respected the natives, he once said,
- "Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken
promises and broken treaties by the government."
Despite how American Indians were depicted in his Wild West shows, he pushed for better treatment. He employed many more
natives than just Sitting Bull, feeling his show offered them a better life, calling them "the former foe, present friend, the
American."
The city of Cody, Wyoming was founded in 1896 by Cody and some investors, and is named for him. It is the home of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. But fifty miles
from Yellowstone National Park, it became a
tourist magnet; many dignitaries and political leaders coming to hunt.
In film and television
Buffalo Bill has been represented in the movies by:
Buffalo Bill's / defunct
A famous free verse poem on mortality by e. e. cummings
uses Buffalo Bill as an image of life and vibrancy. The poem is untitled, but commonly known by it's first two lines: "Buffalo
Bill's / defunct". The poem uses expressive phrases to describe Buffalo Bill's showmanship, referring to his "watersmooth-silver
/ stallion", and using a staccato beat to describe his rapid shooting of a series of clay pigeons.
External links and references
Other Buffalo Bills
-This article has been brought to you by BambooWeb and Wikipedia-
