William "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a "boy extra," a bullwhacker, cattle driver, hunter, and an American Indian fighter on the Great Plains of the 1850s, all before becoming a teenager. He claimed to have killed nearly 5,000 buffalo to supply construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. In time, trading on his fame as Buffalo Bill and as a Pony Express rider, the then-Army scout transformed himself into a showman extraordinaire with the establishment of his Wild West arena extravaganza. The Wild West part circus, part rodeo, part history toured for three decades, playing to enthusiastic crowds across the United States and Europe. For a time, Buffalo Bill Cody was possibly the most famous man in the world. Though Cody made huge sums with the Wild West show, he died a poor man in 1917.
