With Cody's flair for showmanship, Buffalo Bill's Wild West was an immediate success. The show included within its ranks, cowboys, Indians (including Sitting Bull in 1885), Annie Oakley (1884 through 1901 season), the Deadwood Stage, and a menagerie of horses, bison and other animals. The show performed throughout the world including before Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and Kaiser Wilhelm. Indeed, Queen Victoria's first public appearance following the death of Prince Albert, was at the show. Thus, Cody earned a fortune.

Unfortunately, Cody's generosity to friends and the fact that his business sense was less than his showmanship, resulted in increasing debt, and it was not uncommon for Cody to open the show or provide refreshment to those less fortunate. At the Chicago Columbian Exposition, when the fair declined a request by the Chicago mayor that there be a children's day for the needy, Cody declared a "Waif's Day" at the Wild West show and provided free train tickets, admission and ice cream to 16,000 Chicago children. Indeed, Cody presaged the future when he once commented to his partner and the manager of the Wild West Show, Nate Salsbury:

"When you die it will be said of you, 'Here lies Nate Salsbury, who made a million dollars in the show business and kept it.' But when I die people will say, 'Here lies Bill Cody, who made a million dollars in the show business and distributed it among friends."

Shortly after Cody's death, his Congressional Medal of Honor was revoked, supposedly on the basis that, as a civilian, he was ineligible. The family refused to return the medal and his name was eventually restored to the list of Medal of Honor recepients, in 1989.

In addition to investments in livery stables and hotels in Sheridan and Cody, Wyoming, he invested in oil companies, irrigation companies, a film production company, and herbal remedies ("White Beaver's Laugh Cream, the Great Lung Healer"). By 1908, the show had merged with Pawnee Bill's show owned by Gordon W. Lillie (1860-1942). The show was owned one-third by Cody, one-third by Lillie, and one-third by James Bailey's widow.

Cody's debts continued to grow and Cody was forced into a series of "farewell appearances." Cody borrowed $20,000 from Harry Heye Tammen, publisher of the Denver Post to cover the cost of printing posters. Forewarned is forearmed. Perhaps, Cody should have been wary of trusting someone who published a postcard bearing the motto: "Live everyday so that you can look every man in the eye and tell him to go to _______." When the show was performing in Denver, Tammen had the show seized by the Sheriff and sold at a Sheriff's sale. Tammen then, holding the debt over Cody's head, forced Cody to appear in a circus owned by Tammen. Judge W. L. Walls of Cody, Wyoming, noted that in the last two years of his life, Cody lost between $140,000.00 and $200,000.00.

Although Cody was ultimately able to disengage himself from Tammen's clutches and the circus, an increasingly arthritic Buffalo Bill was required to continue to appear in various shows, including Miller's 101. In the end Cody was so weak that he could no longer mount his great white horse McKinley and had to ride before the crowds in a carriage.



On January 10, 1917, in debt and pennyless, Cody died at the home of his youngest sister, May Cody Decker, in Denver. The day before his death he was baptised as a Roman Catholic. Condolences cames from all over the world, including messages from President Wilson and King George V and Queen Mary. None, however, were more poignant than that received from Pine Ridge:


Pine Ridge, SD
January 12, 1917

The Oglala Sioux Indians of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, in council assembled, resolve that expression of deepest sympathy be extended by their committee in behalf of all the Oglalas, to the wife, relatives, and friends of the late William F. Cody for the loss they have suffered; that these people who have endured may know that the Oglalas found in Buffalo Bill a warm and lasting friend; that our hearts are sad from the heavy burden of his passing, lightening only in the belief of our meeting before the presence of our Wakan Tanka in the great hunting ground.

Attest:

Chief Jack Red Cloud


Cody's will indicated that it was his desire to be buried on Cedar Mountain near Cody, Wyoming. The Denver Post, published by Tammen who still had a financial interest in the remnants of the Wild West show, indicated that it was Cody's oral desire to be buried on Lookout Maintain overlooking Golden, a desire denied by Cody's friend Zane Gray. Upon his death, Cody's body lay in state at the Colorado State House. The Wyoming Legislature adjourned all business.




On January 15, Cody's remains were escorted by silk top-hatted officers to the building at the corner of 14th and California where funeral services were conducted. The caisson was followed by Col. Cody's favorite horse, McKinley, escorted by members of the National Order of Cowboy Rangers. The Cowboy Rangers wore the red bandanas of their order and as the casket was lifted from the caisson and carried into the building, McKinley seemed restless and attempted to break free from the Cowboy Ranger holding him.

As the great doors were closed, McKinley whinnied, broke free and ran to the caisson. Sniffing and whinnying yet again, the great white horse circled the caisson. The Cowboy Ranger grabbed McKinley's reins and as McKinley was quietly led away, the horse turned his head and stared at the doors through which the casket of his master had disappeared.

Across the front of the room there was a bank of floral tributes from across the nation and from abroad. The mass of flowers measured fifty feet across and twenty-five feet deep. Within the room, some 1300 attended the service.

Members of the Grand Army of the Republic delivered their service followed by Taps. The Supreme Boss of the Cowboy Rangers, Albert U. Mayfield, delivered his eulogy which ended with the calling of William F. Cody's name. Yet twice again the name was called, but Cody did not respond. Then to the strains of an old Civil War hymn, Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground, Buffalo Bill Cody was bid farewell."

Outside, more than 3,000 waited in the bitter cold for over 2 1/2 hours until the doors were reopened, so that they might file past his casket.

The grave on top of Lookout Mountain was not yet ready. Thus, Cody's body was kept at the Olinger Mortuary, at the corner of 16th and Boulder Streets, for the next six months, being reimbalmed six times. Another service was conducted upon his interment on June 3, 1917.

Sometime later, supposedly, a veterans' organization from Cody Wyoming, was dispatched on an expedition to recover Cody's remains and return them to Cody for proper burial. The expedition, however, allegedly only made it as far as a saloon in Cheyenne. But as a result, however, the City of Golden, surrounded the grave with an iron fence topped with barbs.

FOOTNOTE:

Tenting Tonight was Col. Cody's favorite song and was always played by the Cowboy Band at each performance of the Wild West. Johnny Baker noted that he had often heard Col. Cody sing the song. Thus, Ryley Cooper, a writer for The Denver Post explained:

"And so the song that was sung about the campfires while the picket men rode their long journeys on the hurricane deck of a western steed, while the Indians lurked in the distance, while the sentinels paced their guard, will be the song that will be sung as a goodby, a farewell to the man who loved the West".


Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground

We're tenting tonight on the old camp ground,
Give us a song to cheer
Our weary hearts, a song of home,
And friends we love so dear.

Many are the hearts that are weary tonight,
Wishing for the war to cease;
Many are the hearts that are looking for the right
To see the dawn of peace.
Tenting tonight, tenting tonight, tenting on the old camp ground

We've been tenting tonight on the old camp ground,
Thinking of days gone by,
Of the loved ones at home that gave us the hand
And the tear that said "Goodbye!"

We are tired of war on the old camp ground,
Many are dead and gone,
Of the brave and true who've left their homes,
Others been wounded long.

We've been fighting today on the old camp ground,
Many are lying near;
Some are dead and some are dying,
Many are in tears.

Many are the heart that are weary tonight,
Wishing for the war to cease;
Many are the hearts that are looking for the right
To see the dawn of peace
Dying tonight, dying tonight, dying on the old camp ground.

Words and Music by Walter Kittredge (1834-1905)