From - Mon Aug 13 19:49:51 2001 Return-Path: Received: from peakpeak.com (tz0064.peakpeak.com [207.174.69.64]) by gash2.peakpeak.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id DAA19308; Tue, 8 May 2001 03:46:04 -0600 Sender: snowbear@gash2.peakpeak.com Message-ID: <3AF7C0BD.32F1C33B@peakpeak.com> Date: Tue, 08 May 2001 03:47:41 -0600 From: Pam North X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.12-20 i586) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "North, Pam" , "Green, Guerin" , "Douglas, Laura" , Vyner Jeff Subject: Article Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Status: X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 X-UIDL: 391deae70000126d THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BUFFALO BILL by Pam North William F. Cody was born near Le Claire, Iowa in Scott County, on February 26, 1846. His family moved to Salt Creek Valley in Kansas in 1853, and were among the first settlers there. Cody left home at the early age of eleven to herd cattle and work as an ox team driver at fifty cents a day, crossing the Great Plains several times. He managed to attend school for nearly a month, then went on to try fur trapping. He made his first trip to Colorado in the spring of 1859 as part of the Pikes Peak gold rush. Passing through the new town of Denver, he headed to the gold fields near Black Hawk, where he searched for gold for two months, apparently with little success. On his return to Kansas, he stopped in Julesburg, Colorado, where he was recruited to ride in the Pony Express in 1860, one of the youngest on line at age 14. He reportedly once rode 322 miles in 21 hours and 40 minutes, exhausting 20 horses. In 1867 and 1868, he was employed by the Goddard brothers and paid $500 a month to provide buffalo meat for workers on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. He was said to have killed 4280 buffalo in 8 months, and earned himself the nickname of Buffalo Bill. After the Civil War he worked as a government scout headquartered at Fort Larned, Kansas, performing remarkable endurance rides, one covering 355 miles in 58 days of day and night riding. In 1866, Cody married Louisa Frederici of St. Louis, and ran the Golden Rule House Hotel in Salt Creek Valley, Kansas. On December 16, 1866, their first daughter, Arta, was born. Other children followed over the years: a son, Kit Carson Cody in 1870 (he died at age 5), and another daughter, Orra, in 1872. In the same year as his last daughter's birth, Cody was almost elected to the Nebraska Legislature on the Democratic ticket, at the age of 26. Cody's life in the West offered the stuff from which legends come, and he was soon popularized in newspaper stories and dime novel sagas. The publicity made easy his transition into the world of the stage. In December, 1872, his show business career began in Chicago when he appeared in a drama titled, "The Scouts of the Prairie," created by dime novelist Ned Buntline. The show was an instant success, and while Cody's ability as an actor was somewhat debatable, his talent as a showman was undeniable; he had charmed his audience. Cody soon had organized his own dramatic troupe, the Buffalo Bill Combination, and returned to Denver to perform in a local opera house there. His tour through Colorado included an appearance on the stage of the Central City Opera House, and also one in an opera house in Georgetown. He continued to devise a variety of plays until 1882, the year in which he conceived the idea for the Wild West show, a production that was to become a legend. The Wild West show was also brought to Colorado, and altogether Buffalo Bill performed 35 times in this state between 1886 and 1916. In addition to performing, Cody had business dealings in Denver. In 1911 he acquired some horse halters from the Gates Tire and Leather Company there, and he liked them so well that he agreed to provide an endorsement for the product. This gave the fledgling firm such a boost in sales that it became the largest halter manufacturer in the United States, and eventually it became known as Gates Rubber Company. Buffalo Bill never retired, although he had hoped to do so. His financial situation forced him to continue performing until his death on January 10, 1917, while he was visiting his sister's home in Denver. According to his wife, Louisa, it was his choice to be buried on Lookout Mountain, at the edge of Golden, Colorado, so he was buried on a promontory there, with views of the mountains and plains where he had spent the happiest times of his life. His wife was buried beside him four years later. A memorial museum at the site is now one of the area's top visitor attractions. Next week: More on the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. Note: Guerin and Laura Photo for this article is at: http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/parks/cody.html