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Raised William Frederick Cody, Buffalo Bill was born in Scott County, Iowa, in 1846. He became known as Buffalo Bill of the Great Plains during the pioneer years of the American "West."
Cody made a business of handling and riding horses. He could outshine others as a scout and showman. In 1883 he organized the famous "Wild West Show" with which he toured America and Europe. This exhibition showed much of the actual early life on the plains, with its band of native Americans, cowboys, roughriders, bucking broncos and buffaloes.
As a boy Bill rode for the Pony Express, then later served as a Union scout and soldier during the US Civil War. |
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He became popular by often shooting buffalo and bringing fresh meat to trainmen and soldiers working on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, Bill was an excellent marksman and buffalo were then still roaming the tundra in large numbers. Cody was an army scout during the Indian conflicts, and then acted as a guide for scientists, sportsmen and tourists in the West. After 1872, he spent more and more time with his show business. In 1876, while scouting for the army in western Nebraska, he fought a famous duel with a Cheyenne warrior named Yellow Hand or Yellow Hair. It is rumored that Cody killed and scalped the warrior, according to the correct native custom, for which he later received the Congressional Medal of Honor. |
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Buffalo Bill authored three books on his adventurous life - "The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill; An Autobiography" (1879) , "The Adventures of Buffalo Bill" and "The Tales of the Plains." Buffalo Bill died in 1917, his gravesite (http://www.msn.com) on Lookout Mountain is a popular tourist visit. |
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