by Think long and hard before you go to a Buffalo Bill site, because once you got to one, you’ll find you need to go to them all. Thus it was that shortly after visiting the Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park Museum in Nebraska we found ourselves visiting the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave in Colorado.
Buffalo Bill and his wife Louisa are buried on Lookout Mountain in Golden, about 20 minutes west of Denver proper. Oddly, Bill never lived in the state, but on a visit to Lookout Mountain he declared it to be a beautiful spot from which he wanted to spend eternity. His wishes – confirmed by Louisa and other family members – were carried out, though not without some drama.
The town of Cody, Wyoming, which was founded by Bill, felt his body belonged with them. In 1948 – more than 30 years after his death – they still hadn’t let it go, and a $10,000 reward was offered by the Cody chapter of the American Legion to anyone who could steal the body and deliver it to Cody! The Denver chapter of the American Legion responded by posting a mounted guard over the grave!
Near the grave site is a small museum dedicated to Bill and his Wild West show, which opened in 1921 just a few years after his death. There are a lot of original artifacts on display thanks to Bill’s foster son Johnny Baker, who donated his memorabilia and encouraged friends and family to do the same to get the museum going. Baker was a trick shot expert, whose stage name was “The Cowboy Kid.” As part of the Wild West show he would engage in a shootout with Annie Oakley, though he would never win.
The cover photo to this post is the complete cast of one of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Shows, which helps give a sense of what a spectacle it must have been!
