Distinctly Montana Magazine

32 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 W H AT M O R E C O U L D H E H AV E D O N E ? B E E N PR E S I D E N T ? E M PE R O R ? IF HE'D BEEN BORN A FEW THOUSAND YEARS EARLIER IN THEBES, HE MIGHT HAVE STRUCK IT EVEN RICHER AND BECOME A GOD, BUT AS IT WAS, HE COULDN'T HAVE BEEN TOO CONCERNED THAT HIS LEGACY HADN'T BEEN SECURED. about the past that summer of 1914 in Montana. If Wil- liam Cody was in decline that year, we only notice it so acutely because he had ascended to such a great height in the first place. Larry McMurtry writes that Buffalo Bill was the most famous man in the world, but that may be putting it too lightly. Fame can be an ephem- eral thing, here today and gone tomorrow. Fame is something you get for winning American Idol or starring in a Lifetime TV movie. What Bill achieved, and which survives long beyond his death two and a half years later in 1917, was to be- come a mythical figure. What more could he have done? Been president? Emperor? If he'd been born a few thousand years earlier in Thebes, he might have struck it even richer and become a god, but as it was, he couldn't have been too con- cerned that his legacy hadn't been secured. Or could it be that his mind wasn't on his legacy in those last years? Maybe he missed his children and treasured his wife's com- pany again. Admittedly, he still had ideas he thought might make him rich, to re- gain the fortune which had withered, even unto his last months. As Robert Carter writes, "[h]e still talked grandly of new moneymaking schemes—'I am climbing toward another fortune'—but there was no question that the old scout was nearing the end of a long and epic journey." He toured in 1916 with the 101 Ranch in Texas, but by the end of the season he had to be helped onto his horse, wincing in pain until he was in view of his audience, chin high and chest out as soon as they could see him.

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