Distinctly Montana Magazine

27 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m BUFFALO BILL'S LAST TOUR OF MONTANA I N 1914, BUFFALO BILL PERFORMED HIS LAST TOUR IN MONTANA. At 68, Buffalo Bill still stood tall in the saddle. There was little sign that he was diminished in any way. Of course, if you saw him up close you might have to admit there were wrinkles. Or if you were privileged enough to see him at home, you'd have known he was bald. At his shows, how- ever, and on the thousands and thousands of objects bearing his image, like his own posters or the covers of innumerable dime novels like "Buffalo Bill among the Comanches; or, Loud Thun- der's Last Ride," he would always don his trademark long hair. After all, who could blame him for being a little vain? It was his job to appear in front of people—sometimes 20,000 people—and they'd come to expect an idol. But it had been a long, long time since he had done the things that were portrayed, though through a glass darkly, in those dime nov- els. It had been 38 years since his oft-recounted duel with the young Heova'ehe, or Yellow Hair (often mistranslated as Yellow Hand), in the Battle of Warbonnet Creek. He'd won that duel, though it'd been close, and scalped the Cheyenne warrior himself. Sixteen years before that, while in the Pony Express, he'd made a 76-mile ride on the Mormon Trail that had secured his place in legend. Or so he claimed; many modern historians point out that the actual distance was twenty-something miles. Still others don't think he made the ride at all. For that matter, on the subject of Yellow Hand, Bill himself later said, "Bunk! Pure bunk! For all I know Yellow Hand died of old age." It was indisputable, however, that he had started and been the founder and face of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, later the Congress of Rough Riders of the World, under the banner of which he had traveled all over the world. They had performed in every town in England that could sup- port them, from Aldershot to York, and with many performances in London, including for the Queen herself, who Buffalo Bill gal- lantly saluted from the arena as most of the crowned heads of Europe watched on. While at the 1883 World's Fair in Chicago, he had put on such a good show, positioned just outside the gates, that there were some, no doubt traveling from far- flung ruralities, who arrived via train, saw the Wild West show and left think- ing they had seen the whole World's Fair, evidently satisfied. He had employed—and befriend- ed—Sitting Bull. He had kissed the tender porcelain skin of pretty women's hands the world over. He'd shook the hands of senators, presidents, potentates, artists, chiefs, and more recently, movie stars. The Wild West (the show, not the era) had been big. Nearly as big as its namesake, which was slipping into history even as his show crisscrossed Europe. by JOSEPH SHELTON o

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