Western Frontiersman, Entertainer, Indian Wars Medal of Honor Recipient. Born in Scott County, Iowa, his family moved to Kansas when he was eight. When his father died in 1857, young Bill rode a mule as a messenger for a freight company. The next year, he dropped out of school, and began making trips west with wagon trains, looking after the livestock and driving a team of horses for the trains. From 1860 to 1861, he rode on the mail route for the short-lived Pony Express Company, carrying mail from San Francisco, California, to St. Joseph, Missouri, and back. During the Civil War, William Cody joined a Jayhawk group, fighting the Confederacy via guerilla style raids in the South, and later served as a Union scout. After the war, he started a hotel in Kansas, but soon sold it to start a freight company, which went out of business when the Indians captured his wagons and horses. After doing some railroad construction work, he became a buffalo hunter, supplying buffalo meat to the railroad gangs building the Transcontinental Railroad. It is said that he killed 4,000 buffalo in just 18 months. His skill with a rifle earned him his lifelong nickname "Buffalo Bill." From 1868 to 1872, he served as a civilian scout for the United States Army, during the Indian Campaigns. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1872, for gallantry in action in a battle with Indians on the Platte River, but it was revoked in 1917, because he was not a member of the military at the time the award was made. His family refused to give it back (Medals of Honor are technically the property of the United States Government), and in 1989, his Medal was restored to him. In late 1883, he formed up a "Wild West" Circus to tour the United States and Europe. The show included mock Indian battles and demonstrations of shooting skill, and became one of the widest known and successful entertainment endeavors in the late 19th and early 20 centuries. After 1894, Cody moved to a ranch in northwestern Wyoming. He died while visiting Denver.

Book by: Linda Wommack

From the Grave: A Roadside Guide to Colorado's Pioneer Cemeteries

Just west of Denver, off I-70, lies the grave of William F. Cody, cowboy and famed scout extraordinaire, a self-made nineteenth century celebrity, better known as "Buffalo Bill."

Cody came west from Iowa, with his family, at the age of eleven, looking for work to support his mother and family. His first job was with the newly-formed Pony Express in 1860, at the age of fifteen. Hired by famed stationer, Jack Slade, Cody carried the mail from Nebraska and the Julesburg station. He next landed a job with the Kansas Pacific Railroad. His job was to get meat for the railroad workers. He polished his shooting skills, bringing down over 4,000 head of buffalo. Hence the name, "Buffalo Bill." This experience and more importantly, his new-found reputation, made him a much sought after Army scout, leading many expeditions against the Indians. Dime novels were published all over the country that stereotyped "Buffalo Bill" into a wild west hero. The dime novels most avid fan was "Buffalo Bill" himself! In 1883, Cody started the "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show," starring himself. The show played all over the country and eventually played in Europe, before the Queen of England. William F. Cody died at age 71, in Denver. He was buried on top of Lookout Mountain, at his request. His funeral procession took the entire afternoon, and was the largest the front range had ever witnessed.