AURA

Theodore Roosevelt said “Buffalo Bill was one of those men, steel-thewed and iron nerved, whose daring progress opened the great West to settlement and civilization.”

Buffalo Bill is best known for his showbiz career, and, depending on the kind of showman or politician you are, politics and show biz can be just two sides of the same coin. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show was quite the hit and even toured to England and France, and, and I’m not being boastful, to the Pan American World Exposition in Buffalo, New York, my hometown.

It included a mock battle with Indians and demonstrations of his shooting skill. He revived the show during the Spanish American War, and was so impressive in its many performances at Madison Square Garden that the public expected him at the age of fifty something to go help Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders fight the Spanish in Cuba.

He even made a movie about Wounded Knee and apparently paid enough to 100 Sioux survivors to portray themselves as savages in it. That’s what it was all about: Clearing the country of Buffalo and Indians for the waves of Anglo immigrants.

Buffalo Bill was among the first to see the potential of commercializing the history of the American West and founded Cody, Wyoming (whose Chamber of Commerce still celebrates him) with the idea that tourists would come to Yellowstone National Park and spend their money at his Buffalo Bill Frontier Town. But. he was a little too far ahead of his time and a little too far west for it to be a hit.

Buffalo Bill Memorial Museum at the summit of Lookout Mountain, 5 miles west of U.S. 6 out Lariat Trail, Golden, CO May-Oct 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily; Nov-April 9a.m. – 4p.m. daily except Mondays. Closed Dec. 25. 303-526-0747.

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