Buffalo Bill Cody was born William Frederick Cody in LeClaire, Iowa in 1846. Buffalo Bill grew up on the prairie. While he was still a child, he and his family packed up and moved to Leavenworth, Kansas. When he was eleven, he left his home of Leavenworth, Kansas and traveled extensively in the great plains herding cattle and worked as a driver in a wagon train. After he got sick of this, he took to fur trapping and then participated in the Pikes Peak gold rush.
             In the spring of 1859, Buffalo Bill made his first trip to Colorado. This was part of the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. He passed through the new town of Denver on his way to the gold fields. There he searched for gold for two months, having little success.
             Then, Cody stopped in Julesburg on his way back to Kansas, and read an advertisement for the Pony Express which said, "skinny, expert riders willing to risk death daily." So, of course he joined the Pony Express. Most of the time while he was with the Pony express, he was in Kansas, but occasionally he traveled across northeast Colorado.
             Then, Cody scouted for the Army in the civil war against the Commanche and Kiowa. In 1863 he enlisted in the Seventh Kansas Calvary. He participated in battles that were eventful in Tennessee and Missouri. Cody then married Louisa Frederici in St. Louis and continued as an army scout out of Fort Ellsworth, Kansas.
             In 1867, Cody did what he needed to do to earn his nickname of Buffalo Bill. He hunted buffalo to feed the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. In about a year and a half, Buffalo Bill killed 4,280 head of buffalo. Cody supposedly took part in an eight hour shooting match with another hunter named William Comstock. This was to determine who would earn the right to be called Buffalo Bill. Cody won and has enjoyed the name as far as I can tell ever since.
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