Buffalo Bill Ranch Historical Park, Nebraska

The park features the home and ranch of the famed showman scout William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Buffalo Bill Ranch at North Platte that recaptures the life and career of the famed Pony Express rider, Army scout and buffalo hunter turned showman through artifacts and written documents.

William Frederick Cody (1846-1917), American hero, was his real name, but before his interesting life was over everyone knew him as 'Buffalo Bill'. He was one of the most colorful characters of the Old West that is recorded in the Hall of Fame.

Cody was born in Iowa, but in his early years his family moved to the State of Kansas moving into a large log cabin on land that they had staked there. Later, through contacts, at the age of fourteen, Cody became a rider for the Pony Express riding hard the trails to deliver the US mail. Cody got his nickname because of his work as a buffalo hunter for the railroad building the first transcontinental railroad. Buffalo Bill, as he was called at that period, claim to have killed 4,290 buffalo in on eighteen month period. (Despite his image as a rough-hewn outdoorsman, Buffalo Bill pushed for the rights of the Native Americans. In addition, despite his history of killing bison, he even supported their conservation by speaking out against hide-hunting and pushing for a hunting season.)

He served as an army scout in various campaigns against the Native Americans during the next four years. For a while, Buffalo Bill toured eastern cities as an actor in a play about scouts of the Wild West, but his performances didn't draw in the audiences so he returned a bit older and wiser in 1876 to scouting, a work he was cut out. A series of popular books were written about his adventures; they were among the first 'dime novels.