| The following season Cody organized
his own troupe, the Buffalo Bill Combination. The troupe’
show "Scouts of the Plains" included Buffalo Bill, Texas
Jack, and Cody’s old friend "Wild Bill" Hickok.
Wild Bill and Texas Jack eventually left the show, but Cody continued
staging a variety of plays until 1882. That year the Wild West show
was conceived. It was an outdoor spectacle, designed to both educate
and entertain, using a cast of hundreds as well as live buffalo,
elk, cattle, and other animals.
"Buffalo Bill’s Wild West" used real
cow-boys and cow-girls, recruited from ranches in the West. At first,
few people shared Cody's admiration of the cow-boys. Most people
regarded them as coarse cattle drivers and used the term "cow-boy"
as an insult. By the end of the 19th century, the cow-boy became
the much more popular "cowboy," thanks in large part to
the Buffalo Bill Wild West shows. The shows demonstrated bronco
riding, roping, and other skills that would later become part of
public rodeos.
The Wild West was invited to England in 1887
to be the main American contribution to Queen Victoria’s Golden
Jubilee celebration. "Buffalo Bill’s Wild West"
was the hit of the celebration, visited by nobility, commoners,
and by Queen Victoria herself. The show was credited with improving
British and American relations. "Buffalo Bill’s Wild
West" rose to international fame and returned two years later
to tour the European Continent.
Today there is a lot of confusion about the relationship between
Buffalo Bill and the Indians. Cody treated his former foes with
great respect and dignity, giving them an opportunity to leave the
reservation and represent their culture when many were trying to
destroy it. Wild West show posters frequently portrayed the Indian
as "The American." Buffalo Bill stated in 1885 that "The
defeat of Custer was not a massacre. The Indians were being pursued
by skilled fighters with orders to kill. For centuries they had
been hounded from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back again. They
had their wives and little ones to protect and they were fighting
for their existence." These are not the words of an arrogant
and bloodthirsty Indian killer, a manner in which he is sometime
incorrectly portrayed.
Buffalo Bill had a great love and concern for people, particularly
children. Many free passes were distributed to orphanages when the
Wild West show came to town. He also was a champion of women’s
rights, advocating equal pay and voting rights for women. The women
in his show received comparable pay for comparable work to the men
in the show. In fact, the women in the Wild West often out-rode
and out-gunned the men. Certainly the most famous was Annie Oakley,
nicknamed Little Sure Shot by Sitting Bull.
Buffalo Bill in Colorado
In spring of 1859 Buffalo Bill made his first
trip to Colorado as part of the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. He passed
through the new town of Denver on his way to the gold fields near
Black Hawk where he searched for gold for two months, meeting with
little success. On his return to Kansas he stopped in Julesburg,
Colorado, where he was recruited to ride in the Pony Express. Most
of his time with the Pony Express was spent in Kansas, although
occasionally he traveled across northeast Colorado. The Pony Express
route did not go to Denver but cut north into Nebraska and Wyoming.
Buffalo Bill did return to Denver in 1869, ten years after his first
time in the town. By then Denver was a growing city where two thieves,
who had stolen from the Army, hoped to hide out. General Carr sent
scout Buffalo Bill Cody and Captain W. Green to capture the men
and return them and the livestock they stole.
Cody returned to Denver another ten years later to perform in a
local opera house with the Buffalo Bill Combination. He continued
to tour through Colorado, performing at the Central City Opera (still
in operation) and at another opera house in Georgetown.
After Buffalo Bill organized his Wild West show, he visited Denver
and Colorado many times. Altogether, Buffalo Bill performed 35 times
in Colorado between 1886 and 1916.
In addition to performing, Buffalo Bill had business dealings in
Denver. In 1911 Cody acquired some horse halters from the Gates
Tire and Leather Company in Denver. He liked them so well that he
provided an endorsement for the product. This gave the fledgling
firm such a boost in sales that it became the largest halter manufacturing
firm in the U.S. It eventually became Gates Rubber Company.
In 1912 Buffalo Bill needed financing for his show and went to Harry
Tammen of Denver for a $20,000 loan. In 1908 he had combined his
show with Pawnee Bill’s under the title Buffalo Bill’s
Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Far East. In 1913 the combined
show arrived for a Denver performance date at the time the $20,000
loan was due. To their surprise the show was seized by the sheriff’s
and held to pay off the $20,000 debt. Since Cody did not have that
much cash available at the time and Tammen would not extend the
loan, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Far
East was sold off at auction in Denver. Continuing to use the debt
as leverage, Tammen then forced Buffalo Bill to appear in Tammen’s
Sells-Floto circus. It was clear that had been his objective all
along. In 1915, Buffalo Bill finally got out of his coerced agreement
with Tammen.
Buffalo Bill never retired, even though he had hoped to do so. He
did two years of farewell performances while his show was combined
with Pawnee Bill’s in 1908 but discovered at the end of the
second year that he could not retire. Growing personal debts due
to bad investments left him with little to retire on. Even after
Cody left the Sells-Floto circus, his financial situation kept him
performing with other wild west shows. In 1917 Buffalo Bill died
while visiting his sister’s home in Denver. According to his
wife Louisa it was his choice that he be buried on Lookout Mountain
overlooking Denver and the Plains. Despite the claims of the citizens
of Cody, Wyoming that he really wanted to be buried near Cody, close
friends like Goldie Griffith and Johnny Baker, as well as the priest
who administered last rites, affirmed that Lookout Mountain was
indeed his choice. On June 3, 1917, Buffalo Bill was buried on Lookout
Mountain, a promontory with spectacular views of both the mountains
and plains, places where he had spent the happiest times of his
life.
Louisa, who had married Buffalo Bill back before he became famous,
was buried next to her husband four years later. That year, 1921,
the Buffalo Bill Memorial Museum was begun by Johnny Baker, close
friend and unofficial foster son to Buffalo Bill. Just as millions
of people saw Buffalo Bill in his Wild West shows during his life,
millions of persons have visited Buffalo Bill’s grave in the
years since 1917. Today it is one of the top visitor attractions
in Denver and Colorado.
|
