Buffalo Bill, born William Frederick Cody in 1846, became a legendary figure of the Wild West, not as a gunman or outlaw, but as the creator of its mythos. A buffalo hunter, army scout, and performer, he earned fame for his Wild West shows, which dramatiz...

The legacy of the cowboy and the lore of the Old West lives on in the American culture because of the famous cowboys and the authors who immortalized them and the actors who made them real.