The Birthplace of the Legend of "Buffalo Bill"

Not every place can claim to be the Birthplace of a Legend. Our legend received his title in 1868, just 10 miles west of our monumental sculpture. He is known to the world as Buffalo Bill Cody, famous for his Wild West Show that toured across America and overseas. This was in the late 1800’s, a time when the world was starved for information of the Wild West. How did it all come about? Well…

 

In the spring of 1868, Williams F. Cody was hunting buffalo to feed the men that were constructing the Kansas Pacific Railroad. In the spring of 1868, as the construction reached Old Monument Station; William F. Cody was being referred to more and more as “Buffalo Bill”.

 

The soldiers at nearby Fort Wallace had a buffalo hunter of their own that supplied them well with meat. It just happened that his name was also Bill – Bill Comstock, Chief of Scouts. The soldiers thought that if anyone should be called Buffalo Bill that it should be Buffalo Bill Comstock, not Cody. The only sensible thing to do was to have a contest to see once and for all who should be “Buffalo Bill”. A time was set, and a wager of $500 was made. The rules would be to see who could bring down the most buffalo in an 8 - hour day. The place was set 20 miles east of Sheridan, which is approximately 10 miles west of Oakley in what is now Logan County, Kansas.

 

The contest was well advertised and a special train with over 100 ladies and gentlemen came all the way from St. Louis to witness the event. Among the spectators were Bill’s wife Louisa and daughter Arta.

 

During the hunt Comstock rode his favorite horse and was armed with a 44 Henry Rifle. Cody was mounted on his favorite buffalo running horse “Brigham” and he was armed with his favorite 50-caliber needle gun ‘Lucretia”. Comstock’s Henry carried more rounds, but did not have the knockdown power of Cody’s big 50.

 

A herd was found and Cody and Comstock both entered the herd at the same time. Comstock took one group and Cody the other. Cody soon had his buffalo circling nicely to the left, shooting the leaders as he went. Comstock, on the other hand, followed his herd and shot the buffalo at the tail end of the herd. At the end of the first run, Cody had brought down 38 to Comstock’s 23. At this point the score was announced, and champagne was uncorked. This proved to be an excellent drink of the Kansas prairie. On the second run Cody managed to bring down 18 to Comstock’s 14. This brought the score to 56 to 37 in Cody’s favor. At this point the champagne was again uncorked for all to enjoy. Cody realized that he was far ahead of his competitor, so he decided to show off, and so on the final run, he rode Brigham without a saddle or bridle. This created a fever pitch of excitement amongst the onlookers. Cody brought down 13 buffalo on the final run, the last of which he drove down to the spectators and brought down within 50 yards of one of the wagons.

 

This ended the great legendary match with Cody bringing down 69 buffalo to Comstock’s 46. Cody was declared the winder to be forever known as “The Buffalo Bill”