The Wild Wild West

William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a soldier, buffalo hunter, and showman. He earned his nickname by killing over 4,000 buffalo to feed the Kansas Pacific Railroad workers. He won exclusive rights to the name in a shootout with William Comstock, who had the same nickname. Cody killed 69 buffalo to Comstock's 48, thus keeping the name. He traveled the world, providing a slice of the American West in his wild west shows.

He died in 1917 and was buried on top of Lookout Mountain in Colorado. Residents of Cody, Wyoming thought he should be buried in their town, and until some tons of concrete were poured over his grave, Denver folks had to guard his body from thievin' Cody-ites who wanted to return the body to the town he founded.

Buffalo Bill and his wife's graves

Looking out over Lookout Mountain

Lookout Mountain, again

Not a bad spot for one's eternal rest.

Cody's friend and foster son, Johnny Baker, set up the museum site to memorialize and honor Buffalo Bill for generations to come. The grave, museum, and gift shop are among the top tourist destinations in CO.

 You can dress up like a cowboy (Nicco refused to put on chaps) and ride a horse with no legs,

 you can check out authentic artifacts (Nicco tried to hide from us, but we got him!),

you can feel and identify all the different types of pelts of the animals the trappers hunted. This is a coyote "with a real foot, just no bones."

And you can step into a not so real tepee.

You can follow lots of different patterns to replicate traditional Indian weaving patterns, but the flag pattern was easiest. I favored easy on this visit. Nicco was a little bit of a pill. Not bad, just enough to make me want to minimize potential difficulties with Captain OCD.

I've been to Lookout Mountain many times, but this was the first time I ever went inside the museum. We had a good visit and I learned a lot about Buffalo Bill that I didn't know before. I always thought he was just a showman and I kind of favored the legends of Wild Bill Hickok (I confess, Deadwood may have something to do with that), but William Cody was a much more interesting character than the Wild West shows portray him.