Local traditions and culture in Nebraska

Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park (Ph #: 308-535-8035) in North Platte, Nebraska is the home of Buffalo Bill Cody who held the first rodeo, the 'Old Glory Blowout', on July 4, 1882. Born in Iowa, William Frederick ('Buffalo Bill') Cody, was raised in Kansas. The buffalo hunter, Army scout, and showman began his career as a military scout in Kansas, and in l868 became a scout for the 5th Cavalry at Fort McPherson, Nebraska. For the next three years he was a guide for expeditions in western Nebraska. In l872 he led the hunting party of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia. He served in the Nebraska National Guard from l890 to l89l. Cody became a legendary figure partly because of dime novels written by Ned Buntline. These books enlarged Cody's reputation as a Pony Express rider, buffalo hunter, and U.S. Army Scout (although historians have cast considerable doubt on his Pony Express rider claims). Buntline influenced Cody to go to New York to star in a melodrama, 'The Scouts of the Prairie' in l872-73. After this Cody formed his own dramatic company and produced stage shows from l875 to l882. In partnership with Dr. W.F. Carver, Cody opened a show, 'Wild West, Rocky Mountain, and Prairie Exhibition' in May l883 in Omaha before an audience of 8,000 people. This was the first truly successful entertainment of this type, and tours in the United States and in Europe followed from l883 to l9l3. At the time of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in l893, Cody's Wild West Show was located nearby. One of the means used to publicize the exposition was a horse race from Chadron, Nebraska to Chicago. Buffalo Bill and a small crowd greeted the winner of the race, John Berry, and Cody added $500 to the original prize money Berry received. Cody was later associated with the North Brothers in a ranch on the Dismal River north of North Platte from 1877 to 1882. This was the first ranch with headquarters north of the Platte River valley in the Sandhills. Later Cody developed his Scout's Rest Ranch near North Platte, and it is now a state historical park. Cody moved to Wyoming, where he became a land developer near present-day Cody, a town named in his honor. Cody died January l0, l9l7, at Denver, Colorado and he is buried atop Lookout Mountain, Golden, Colorado. He was made a member of the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City in 1958 and a member of the Nebraska Hall of Fame in l967. Cody received the United States Medal of Honor in 1872 for gallantry as an army scout, but a congressional ruling in 1917, shortly after Cody's death, caused his medal to be revoked. The ruling stated that only enlisted men and officers could receive the medal and that army scouts, who were considered civilians, were ineligible. In the summer of 1989 the army returned Cody's name to the Medal of Honor list. The medal which reads 'The Congress to William F.Cody, guide, for gallantry at Platte River, Neb., April 26, 1872,' had been retained by the Cody family, because the army had not requested its return. The bronze, star-shaped medal may be seen at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center at Cody, Wyoming.