William Buffalo Bill Cody

Buffalo Bill was one of the most interesting figures of the old west, and the best known spokesman of the new west. Buffalo Bill was born in 1846 and his real name was William Frederick Cody. Cody was many things. He was a trapper, bullwhacker, Colorado “Fifty-Niner”, Pony Express rider, Civil War soldier, wagonmaster, stagecoach driver, and even a manager of a hotel. He changed his name to Buffalo Bill sometime in his early twenties for his skill while supplying railroad workers with buffalo meat. He would soon begin his career as one of the most famous prairie scouts of the Indian Wars. Buffalo Bill worked the army from 1868-1872. Cody was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1872. He was considered good luck by the men of the Fifth Cavalry. Cody guided them to victory, kept them from ambush, and his own fame in turn reflected glory on the regiment. Buffalo Bill thought himself to be lucky too. Cody was very fortunate to be wounded in action only once, and that one time it was only a minor wound. Most of all, he was most gracious for always being in the right place at the right time. Buffalo Bill Cody appeared on stage for the first time in 1872. He played himself in a play titled “Scouts of the Prairie”. Following this, he kept acting in the winter and he worked for the army in the summer. The Wild West show began in 1883 in Omaha. When this began, real cowboys and real Indians showing how life really was in the west. Cody’s show spent ten out of its thirty years in Europe. “Buffalo Bill was a featured attraction at Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Only Egypt’s fame opposed the Wild West as the talk of Chicago at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. His show exhibited many famous people, such as Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull. By the 1900’s, Buffalo Bill could have possibly been the most famous and recognizable man in the entire world. The Wild West’s great