Buffalo Bill Cody


  

I want to study Buffalo Bill Cody because he was a hunter and an army scout and an Indian fighter.  When I grow up I want to be a hunter an army scout.  Do you know that Buffalo Bill Cody was a rider for the Pony Express?  http://www.voiceseducation.org/category/tag/buffalo-bill-cody

 

Listen to an Interview with Buffalo Bill Cody

 

By Travis Wissinger 

Who was William Frederick Cody?  He was Buffalo Bill Cody, a famous frontiersman.  He was good at shooting guns.  

Buffalo Bill Cody was born on Feb 26, 1846 in Scott County, Iowa.  He had five sisters and his mom was a school teacher. Buffalo Bill Cody’s family moved to Kansas when Buffalo Bill was age 8.  He got his first gun and horse at age 8.  His cousin taught him how to shoot a gun while riding a horse.  He was a good horse rider and shooter.

His father died in 1857 when he was 11 years old.  He got his first job after his dad died.  He rode a mule as a messenger for a freight company. He went to school for a year around 1857.  In 1858 he stopped school and took a trip west with wagon trains. Next he looked after livestock.  Then he drove horses.  In 1860 Cody rode on a horse to hand out mail for the Pony Express. 

In 1861- 1865 he joined the militia to fight against slavery.  He drove a team of horses for the Calvary.  After the Civil War, he became a buffalo hunter and gave meat to workers who built railroad.  He was good at hunting and that is how he got his nickname Buffalo Bill.  He helped people hunt buffalo. 

From 1868 – 1872, he was a scout for the military and fought Indians in the West.  Buffalo Bill Cody got a medal of honor for fighting Indians.  In 1872 his next job was a showman.  He went to a theatre to be in a show called “Wild West.”  He played the lead in “Scouts of the Prairie.”  After 1872 he went back to the plains to scout buffalo and raise cattle.  In 1876 he got into a fight with Cheyenne Indians and killed and scalped the warrior – Yellow Hair. 

In 1883 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show traveled through parts of Europe.  In the show he made up battles with Indians and he showed his shooting skills.  In 1892 Buffalo Bill performed in the Wild West show shortly before he died.  After 1894 he lived on a ranch in northwestern Wyoming.  In 1917 Bill passed away and his grave is in Lock Out Mountain near Denver, Colorado.