Around here the legacy of our town’s founder, William F. Cody, known as “Buffalo Bill”, is easily found.
Interested in history, art, firearms, the surrounding regions or our native peoples? Spend a day or three at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
Want to go camping or boating? Head west to Buffalo Bill State Park.
On your way, stop and check out the Buffalo Bill Dam.
Technically, William F. Cody could have easily been nicknamed “Bison Bill Cody.”
The term “buffalo” as it applies to our North American species is actually a misnomer. Early settlers here called them buffalo because they reminded them of the African buffalo. The species are not related, and the proper term for our species is “bison.” The Latin term is actually Bison bison. I guess the biologist who came up with that name liked it a lot.
Bill Cody was hired to hunt and kill bison to help feed railroad workers, and he received his nickname because he was good at it.
The bison was a huge part of the culture and life of the plains Indians in this country with the animal providing food, clothing, housing and much more.
At one time in this country, some 30 million plains bison lived in North America and roamed from as far east as – here it comes – Buffalo, New York to California and from as far south as northern Mexico to southern Canada. Other subspecies lived even farther north to Alaska and northern Canada.
Stories proliferated about herds so large that trains were forced to stop for up to three days until the tracks were finally clear.
Killing bison was popular sport, and people would shoot them from the trains and simply leave their carcasses behind. Others would kill them for their trophy heads or just a small part of the animal.
There were so many bison that people never even thought in terms of extinction. Guess what happened? Bison were killed with such success that by the early part of the 20th century, there were almost no bison left.
Fortunately, although we came way too close we did not hunt the plains bison to extinction. Playing a big part in saving this species was the Yellowstone National Park herd and the Buffalo Ranch in Lamar Valley.
Next week I will tell you about the 4,600 bison in the park, all their names – just kidding – and how they were saved.
Until then, I am lovin’ life in Cody, Wyo.
Corrie N. Cody