Cody, William "Buffalo Bill"
Born February 26, 1846
Scott County, Iowa
Died January 10, 1917
Denver, Colorado
Pony Express rider, army scout, showman
"Buffalo Bill was one of those men, steel-thewed and iron nerved, whose daring progress opened the great West to settlement and civilization.... He embodied those traits of courage, strength and self-reliant hardihood which are vital to the well-being of our nation."
Theodore Roosevelt, as quoted in Buffalo Bill: The Noblest Whiteskin
At the turn of the twentieth century, William F. Cody was known as "the greatest showman on the face of the earth," according to Nellie Snyder Yost in Buffalo Bill: His Family, Fame, Failures, and Fortunes. Growing up on the frontier, Cody loved the freedom and excitement of western life. But as more people settled the once "wild" West and as Indians were forced onto reservations, Cody saw that the way of life he had grown to love was disappearing. To preserve it, he turned his real life adventures into the first and greatest outdoor western show. Cody wanted to "bring the people of the East and of the New West to the Old West, and possibly here and there to supply new material for history," according to his autobiography.
