41 Facts About Buffalo Bill

1.

William Frederick Cody, known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman.

2.

Buffalo Bill was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory, but he lived for several years in his father's hometown in modern-day Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, before the family returned to the Midwest and settled in the Kansas Territory.

3.

Buffalo Bill started working at the age of eleven, after his father's death, and became a rider for the Pony Express at age 15.

4.

One of the most famous and well-known figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill's legend began to spread when he was only 23.

5.

Buffalo Bill founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1883, taking his large company on tours in the United States and, beginning in 1887, in Great Britain and continental Europe.

6.

Buffalo Bill's father, Isaac Cody, was born on September 5,1811, in Toronto Township, Upper Canada, now part of Mississauga, Ontario, directly west of Toronto.

7.

Buffalo Bill moved to Cincinnati to teach school, and there she met and married Isaac.

8.

Buffalo Bill was a descendant of Josiah Bunting, a Quaker who had settled in Pennsylvania.

9.

Buffalo Bill was invited to speak at Rively's store, a local trading post where pro-slavery men often held meetings.

10.

Buffalo Bill's enemies learned of a planned visit to his family and plotted to kill him on the way.

11.

At age 11, Buffalo Bill took a job with a freight carrier as a "boy extra".

12.

Buffalo Bill wore this war-bonnet of the Sioux, at his shoulder was a rifle pointed at someone in the river-bottom 30 feet [9meters] below; in another second he would drop one of my friends.

13.

Buffalo Bill signed with them, and after building several stations and corrals, Cody was given a job as a rider.

14.

Buffalo Bill worked at this until he was called home to his sick mother's bedside.

15.

Buffalo Bill began working with a freight caravan that delivered supplies to Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming.

16.

Buffalo Bill was Chief of Scouts for the Third Cavalry in later campaigns of the Plains Wars.

17.

Ironically, the law was enacted days before Buffalo Bill died, so he never knew a law might rescind the medal awarded to him.

18.

The legal brief he drafted and submitted to the Department of Defense on behalf of the relatives of Buffalo Bill argued that civilian scouts were technically officers, as their native American counterparts were nominally scouts.

19.

Cody and another hunter, Bill Comstock, competed in an eight-hour buffalo-shooting match over the exclusive right to use the name, which Cody won by killing 68 animals to Comstock's 48.

20.

Buffalo Bill was therefore released from the group after a few months.

21.

Buffalo Bill had met some Italian butteri and said his men were more skilled at roping calves and performing other similar actions.

22.

On 29 October, 1901, outside Lexington, North Carolina, a freight train crashed into one unit of the train carrying Buffalo Bill's show from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Danville, Virginia.

23.

In 1908, Pawnee Bill and Buffalo Bill joined forces and created the Two Bills show.

24.

Also, at this time, Buffalo Bill was presented with written accolades from several of America's high ranking generals including William T Sherman, Philip H Sheridan and William H Emory testifying to his service, bravery, and character.

25.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West returned to Europe in May 1889 as part of the Exposition Universelle in Paris, an event that commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille and featured the debut of the Eiffel Tower.

26.

Buffalo Bill was disappointed that the condition of the Colosseum did not allow it to be a venue; however, at Verona, the Wild West did perform in the ancient Roman amphitheater.

27.

In 1891, Buffalo Bill performed in Karlsruhe, Germany, in the Sudstadt Quarter.

28.

Buffalo Bill was so impressed by the development possibilities from irrigation, rich soil, grand scenery, hunting, and proximity to Yellowstone Park that he returned in the mid-1890s to start a town.

29.

Buffalo Bill envisioned a growing number of tourists coming to Cody on the recently opened Burlington rail line.

30.

Buffalo Bill expected that they would proceed up Cody Road, along the north fork of the Shoshone River, to visit Yellowstone Park.

31.

Buffalo Bill operated a dude ranch, pack-horse camping trips, and big-game hunting business at and from the TE Ranch.

32.

Buffalo Bill is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Cody, Wyoming.

33.

Buffalo Bill's decision was made after years of jealous arguments, bad blood between his wife and his sisters, and friction between the children and their father.

34.

Buffalo Bill claimed that she had never attempted to poison him and that she wished to remain married.

35.

Buffalo Bill was baptized in the Catholic Church the day before his death by Father Christopher Walsh of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

36.

Buffalo Bill said that he had always said he wanted to be buried on Lookout Mountain, which was corroborated by their daughter Irma, Cody's sisters, and family friends.

37.

Buffalo Bill employed many Native Americans, as he thought his show offered them good pay with a chance to improve their lives.

38.

Buffalo Bill wanted the paying public to see the human side of the "fierce warriors".

39.

Buffalo Bill received his second and third degrees on April 2,1870, and January 10,1871, respectively.

40.

Buffalo Bill became a Knight Templar in 1889 and received his 32nd degree in the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in 1894.

41.

Buffalo Bill has been portrayed in many literary, musical, and theatrical works, movies, and television shows, especially during the 1950s and 1960s, when Westerns were most popular.