William Fredrick Cody, or better known as "Buffalo Bill Cody" was born in Le Claire Iowa. On his 8th birthday they moved to Leavenworth, Kansas. After his father died in 1857, he rode a mule and became a messenger for a freighting frim. Buffalo Bill only went to school for one year. After attending school he went west with different wagon trains. At first he just looked after livestock, then he drove a herd of horses out west. In 1860 he rode on a pony express team for a mailing company. During the civil war in 1861 to 1865, Cody joined the Pro Union Kansas Militia, that was not really part of the regular army or the Ninth Kansas Volunteers. After that he became a teamster driving horses west for the Seventh Kansas Calvary. After the war Cody opened and operated a hotel in the Kansas village. The hotel thing failed, then he opened a freighting business, but the indians captured and stole the horses and wagons.

When everything failed he became a buffalo hunter. The reason he became a buffalo hunter was to supply the railroad workers with meat. His famous name Buffalo Bill Cody came from his great marksmanship with a rifle and the ability to kill a buffalo from a great distant.

From 1868 to 1872, Cody served as a civilian scout for the military forces fighting indians in the west. Between jobs he served as a guide for several parties of buffalo hunters.

Buffalo Bill died in 1917. He requested to be burried ontop of Lookout Mountain near Denver, Colorado.