Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show Thrilled Audiences with Scenes of a Bygone Era

From Pony Express rider to buffalo hunter, Buffalo Bill Cody took his life of adventure and created a drama-filled with outlaws, sharp shooters and fragments of the American West

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Guest Post by Donna Patton

Image generated via Midjourney

Background

In the waning years of the Wild West, crowds of spectators were treated to traveling shows featuring demonstrations of shooting, horse riding, and reenactments of famous battles or gunfights.

Many of the participants were, by then, household names akin to modern celebrities. Names like Annie Oakley and Chief Sitting Bull conjured images of a past where freedom, adventure, and possibility lay just beyond the horizon.

The most successful of these shows was started by a well-known cowboy and scout named Buffalo Bill Cody.