Born in 1846, Buffalo Bill Cody was an American legend, experiencing the Wild West in its heyday and seeing great change sweep across the region over the course of his lifetime. He prospected in the Pikes Peak gold rush, joined the Pony Express (a horseback mail service that ran from Missouri to California), served in the Civil War, and earned his nickname by hunting over 4,000 buffalo in less than two years to feed workers building the railroads.
Cody started his own sideshow by 1883, titled “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West,” the first outdoor western show that travelled across the U.S. and toured Europe 8 times. The show featured acts such as Annie Oakley and her sharp shooting, reenactments of historical events like Custer’s Last Stand, and dramatizations of life on the frontier, from buffalo hunting to train robberies. The show ran through 1913, and Buffalo Bill died 4 years later.
