The Mystery Of Buffalo Bill's Grave
Way Of The Ray
The mystery of Buffalo Bill's grave
Friday, January 10, 2003 Posted: 1:31 PM EST (1831 GMT)
Almost half a million people visit Buffalo Bill's grave outside Golden,
Colorado, each year.
GOLDEN, Colorado (AP) -- High on a mountain overlooking Denver and the
Great Plains lies the body of a Wild West icon.
Or maybe not
Some people say Buffalo Bill Cody is buried in Cody, Wyoming, a town he
founded, while others say he's in North Platte, Nebraska, where he spent
many years.
But most believe he is under a large gravestone atop Lookout Mountain,
about 30 minutes west of Denver.
Each year almost a half-million people visit the grave, also the final
resting place of Buffalo Bill's wife, Louisa Maud. A 3-foot wrought-iron
fence surrounds the site, which doesn't deter people from throwing coins
onto the grave for good luck.
About 65,000 visitors a year tour the nearby Buffalo Bill Memorial
Museum to view exhibits detailing the life of the famed buffalo hunter
and showman.
The museum was founded shortly after Buffalo Bill's death in 1917 by his
foster son Johnny Baker, who also started the nearby gift shop and
restaurant. The menu appropriately includes buffalo burgers.
Exhibits feature Indian artifacts, Old West art and firearms and
intricate costumes Buffalo Bill wore during the Wild West show that made
him internationally famous.
The show was an outdoor spectacle, employing hundreds of people and
using buffalo, elk, horses, cattle and other animals. It began in 1882
and toured the United States and Europe for more than two decades.
"They had full trains that they'd use, like circuses today," says museum
director Steve Friesen said.
The show made the American West fascinating to the uninitiated. Some say
it fathered the modern rodeo and even helped improve relations between
the United States and England.
The stuff of legends
What seems to fascinate people the most about Buffalo Bill is his death
January 10, 1917. He was buried that June, which prompted rumors about
the location of his body.
"There's a couple of different legends," says Juti Winchester, curator
of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody.
"What supposedly happened was some folks from Cody, including the local
undertaker, went down to Denver and stole the body and brought it back
here. That was supposed to have happened between January and June,"
Winchester says.
"First of all, I discount that completely," she said. "The truth of it
is, he had an open casket funeral, and I'm sure if he wasn't there,
someone would have said something."
Buffalo Bill's wife, close friends, the priest who administered his last
rites and even the inscription on the gravestone say he wanted to be
buried between Colorado's Eastern Plains and the Rocky Mountains.
"He told them he liked the view," Friesen says.
The most-asked question at Buffalo Bill's grave: Is he really buried
here?
Visitors can get a similar view from an observation deck to the left of
the museum. Looking east, the high-rises of downtown Denver stand in
sharp contrast to the flat, endless plains. To the west are rugged
snow-topped peaks and forest-covered mountains.
Buffalo Bill was born in Iowa as William Frederick Cody on February 26,
1846. He grew up in Kansas and by age 11 was driving wagons across the
Great Plains. He later mined for gold in Colorado, rode in the Pony
Express and scouted for the Army.
He officially earned his nickname after winning a daylong hunting
competition with a man who also claimed the name, Friesen says.
Soon, Buffalo Bill became the subject of newspaper articles and dime
novels, which often exaggerated or simply made-up stories about the man
and the Wild West.
Buffalo Bill became so famous that while in New York, he saw a play
about himself. Realizing that money could be made, he took on his own
persona and began a show about the American West.
"The critics hate it and the audience loves it," Friesen says. "Buffalo
Bill wasn't much of an actor, but he was very personable."
A progressive cowboy
Buffalo Bill's legacy has also brought controversy, especially stories
of mass buffalo hunting and relations with American Indians. Friesen,
who calls such critics "the politically correct but historically
confused," say the stories sometimes overshadow who Buffalo Bill really
was.
Buffalo Bill, Friesen says, supported the rights of Indians and women,
whom he believed deserved the same pay as others doing the same job.
When buffalo herds dwindled, he denounced hunting the animals.
Perhaps most important, Friesen says, is what Buffalo Bill did for
American-English relations. "When the show went to England in 1887, it
was part of an effort for England and America to reconcile," he said.
The museum highlights these lesser known stories of Buffalo Bill and may
put some of the rumors to rest.
Except for the one about the grave.
"That's the number one question from visitors. Is Buffalo Bill really
buried here?" Friesen says. "He is. He's here."
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Copyright 2003 The Associated Press
donna...@yahoo.com
about cousin Bill's grave.
Donna