Distinctly Montana Magazine

28 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 4 At its height, Buffalo Bill's Wild West would, in the course of one week, use up: "Beef 5,694 pounds; veal 1,259 pounds; mutton 750 pounds; pork 966 pounds; ba- con 350 pounds; ham 410 pounds; chick- en 820 pounds; bread 2,100 loaves; milk 3,260 quarts; ice 10 tons; potatoes 31 bar- rels; cabbage 7 barrels... Worcestershire sauce 15 gallons; mustard 6 gallons; pow- dered mustard 15 pounds... pig's feet 1 barrel; flour 4 barrels; cornmeal 200 pounds; syrup 10 gallons; and pies 500." Somehow, despite the colossal expenses, Bill's propensity for drink, and some question- able business decisions, the Wild West show had still managed to make enough money to make it the rival, and very possibly the usurper, of Barnum's claim to be the "greatest showman on earth." In the intervening years, it had to be admit- ted, his star had been dimmed somewhat by a scandalously public almost-divorce that had shocked newspaper readers. He libellously claimed his wife, Louisa Cody, was poisoning him. She made the much less ridiculous claim that he had cheated on her. He had been admired by women everywhere he went; certainly he had given in to temptation a few times. But by 1914, all of that was behind him. He had even, improbably, reconciled with the sup- posed poisoner. They'd lost three children over the course of their marriage, and they stood to gain more by staying together than by separat- ing. She now traveled with him, and together they treasured the simple comfort of familiarity and mutual understanding. As Louisa and Bill watched Montana's prairies and mountains roll by from the window of their train car, they must have thought that here was a place that, like the town named after him in Wyo- ming, was still at least a little wild. Montana, too, was still sparsely electrified, and resembled more than most a picture postcard of a vanishing era. They would have seen elk and moose drinking river water from his train car, and eagles circling wolf kills. They would not, however, have seen any bison; Bill had staked a good part of his leg- end on helping to reduce their numbers. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, 1890

• Cover