Happy Birthday, Bill

William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was born on this day in 1846 in Iowa. The Codys moved to Kansas as the Territory opened and were front and center of American history from that day on. 

Bill Cody was a complex man and I have been completely seduced by him. I see his flaws, but his incredible spirit makes up for them. 

This is my favorite photo of him, a young man, whose eyes had already seen death and loss and injustice. What an incredible face. . . .

 

Be My Valentine

While perusing the newspapers researching items of histoic note, I came across these Valentine's Day jewels. First, this ad for Valentines that ran in the Daily Kansas Tribune several days in 1866:

I'm not sure what advertising class that typesetter attended, but they definitely got the point across.

Then we get the sentimental Valentine stories with fittingly sappy illustrations. These are from the February 14 edition of The Leavenworth Standard in 1888:

One notice that was particularly interesting from an 1866 paper was an editorial decrying the decline of Valentine's Day and explaining that not as many Valentines are mailed these days. The stores used to be decked out for Valentine's Day and now they are dull by comparison. If only that editor could travel in time to Walmart in January!!

1890s Valentine

Sheridan--the Hell-on-Wheels Town

 

The town of Phil Sheridan, Kansas, is long gone. Its life was short and eventful, its inhabitants the fodder of dime novels. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of freight moved through the temporary town--wool from Santa Fe, flour from Trinidad, dry goods from the East. And the buffalo hunters!!! Hides were literally moving the manufacturing machines in the northeast and meat was feeding the railroad workers.

Mike Boss, artist from Hill City, KS, has painted many scenes from the pages of history books. Above is his depiction of one of those hunters at Sheridan.

At the Fort Wallace Museum, we have established a research committee that is compiling the information we have on Sheridan and searching out other sources. Our Capt. Myles Keogh Research Library will be the repository for these materials and we will find ways to share the results--a booklet, for example. 

If you have maps, letters, manuscripts that would offer more details on this short-lived but incredibly interesting town, please share with us.

Wild Bill Returns to Shawnee

 

The midnight shift of the Shawnee Police Department visited their predecessor Wild Bill on what they called "his first midnight shift in over a century." The sculpture on Shawnee Mission Parkway was to have been created by artist Charles Goslin who passed the commission to Maretta Kennedy, according to posts on the Shawnee PD's social media.

A few years ago, I appeared in an episode of AHC's Gunslingers series on James B. Hickok. I had several friends involved in that segment--Thom Ross, Johnny D. Boggs, Paul Hutton, Drew Gomber, Bob Boze Bell. Even though it was recorded back in 2013, it still airs regularly. Watch the trailer here: https://youtu.be/2UbGYExkiI8

Photo Courtesy of the Shawnee Kansas Police Department