Buffalo Bill (1846-1917), whose real name was William Frederick Cody, was a frontiersman and noted marksman of the American West. Cody later became a popular showman.
Cody was born on Feb. 26, 1846, in Le Claire, Iowa. When he was 8, his family moved to Kansas. After his father died in 1857, he rode a mule as a messenger for a freighting firm. He went to school for a year, then made trips west with wagon trains. He looked after livestock at first, then drove a team of horses. In 1860, Cody rode on a mail route for the pony express.
During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Cody joined pro-Union Kansas militias that were not part of the Regular Army, and the Ninth Kansas Volunteers. He later served as a teamster (driver of horse teams) in the Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. After the Civil War, Cody operated a hotel in a Kansas village. After the hotel venture failed, Cody started a freighting business, but then Native Americans captured his wagons and horses.
After speculating in land and doing railroad construction work, he became a buffalo hunter, supplying meat for workers building a railroad west across Kansas. His amazing skill with a rifle earned him his nickname, “Buffalo Bill.”
From 1868 to 1872, Cody served as a civilian scout for military forces fighting native peoples in the West. Between campaigns, he served as a guide for several parties of buffalo hunters. Cody was awarded the Medal of Honor for his role in a fight with a group of Sioux on the Platte River in 1872. The medal was revoked in 1917 because Cody was not a member of the military at the time the award was made. The Department of the Army reinstated Cody’s medal in 1989.
Late in 1872, Cody began his long career as a showman. He appeared first in “Wild West” shows in theaters. He took the leading role in a play, Scouts of the Prairie, which co-starred “Texas Jack” Omohundro and, later, Wild Bill Hickok. But Cody made several trips back to the plains to scout and to raise cattle. In 1876, he took part in a skirmish with a band of Cheyenne in which he killed a young warrior, Yellow Hair.
Early in 1883, Cody and others formed “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West,” a traveling show that toured the United States and parts of Europe. The show included a mock battle with Native Americans and a demonstration of Cody’s shooting skill. Cody performed until shortly before his death.
After 1894, Cody lived on a ranch in the Bighorn Basin in northwestern Wyoming. He died on Jan. 10, 1917. His grave is on Lookout Mountain, near Denver, Colorado.
