When the Wild West Comes to Town
Buffalo Bill Cody visited many towns, both as a stage actor with Texas Jack and later with the Wild West. A look at his trips to Chattanooga illustrates the machinery that powered the Wild West.
One hundred twenty-eight years ago this week, on October 26, 1895, Buffalo Bill's Wild West made its first stop in my hometown, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Along with William F. Cody came two trains totaling fifty or more cars. On these trains were as many as 500 cast and staff members, including twenty-five cowboys, a dozen cowgirls, and one hundred Indian men, women, and children. They were fed three hot meals a day, cooked on twenty-foot-long ranges. The show generated its own electricity with enormous generators designed by Thomas Edison’s company and staffed its own on-site fire department. Performers lived in wall tents during long stands or slept in railroad sleeping cars when the show moved daily. Business on the back lot was carried on in what one reporter called “a Babel of languages.” Expenses were as high as $4,000 per day.
Besides performers and staff, the trains transported hundreds of show and draft horses and as many as thirty buffalo at at a time. Grandstand seating for twenty thousand spectators was transported along with the acres of canvas necessary to cover them, ensuring that the "Show of Shows" would go on "Rain or Shine." While the audience was covered, the arena remained open to the elements. Advance staff traveled ahead of the show to procure licenses and arrange for the ten to fifteen acres required for the show lot, preferably close to the railroad; to buy the tons of flour, meat, coffee, and other necessities; and to publicize and advertise. Posters and billboards were hung weeks in advance of Buffalo Bill’s arrival.
Bill Cody's relationship with Chattanooga extended past just his show stops. Cody's son-in-law, Clarence Stott, was stationed at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, just south of Chattanooga, with Troop E of the Twelfth Cavalry for several years. While Stott was at Fort Oglethorpe, Buffalo Bill made yearly stops in Chattanooga to visit his youngest daughter, Irma, who lived on the base with her husband. He spent Christmas 1905 with his daughter in Fort Oglethorpe, enjoying a lavish Christmas feast at which he was the guest of honor. In addition to Roast Turkey with Oyster Dressing, Pork Loin, Mashed Potatoes, and String Beans, one unusual dish served at the Fort that day was "Roast Possum."
1905, the year of this particular Christmas visit, was a particularly trying time for Buffalo Bill. His oldest daughter, Arta, had died suddenly a year earlier, and Bill and his wife Louisa were locked in a very public divorce proceeding that ended with the Judge refusing to grant Cody a divorce. Though the two eventually mended their marriage, Bill relished the chance to visit his daughter during the holiday.
In some years, Buffalo Bill's Wild West covered over 11,000 miles in 200 days, giving as many as 341 performances in 132 different cities and towns across the United States. By the end of his career, Buffalo Bill had performed in over 1,500 towns, both in America and abroad.
Cody visited Chattanooga with his shows eight times, though, during the last visit on June 7, 1913, with the “Two Bill’s Show” he ran with Pawnee Bill Lillie, he was ill at a cousin's house in Knoxville and could not attend, leading to poor ticket sales. The following month in Denver, the show was seized by a businessman named Harry Tammen after Cody reportedly fell behind repaying a loan. Though Cody was forced by the conditions of the loan to leave the Two Bill’s Show and tour with Tammen's Sells-Floto Circus, Buffalo Bill never owned or operated his own show again.
