William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody was one of the most notable people of the American Old West. That notoriety enabled him to be buried in the mountains above Denver, Colorado, spurring the creation of the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave that celebrates the legacy of the Old West as well as an important era in the history of the United States.
The Legend and Legacy of Buffalo Bill
William Cody was born in 1846. He fought for the Union in the Civil War but would go on to great fame when he began to perform in traveling vaudeville shows that would eventually lead him to create Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in 1883. His shows became an international success, propelling him to incredible fame. He died in 1917, and one of his final wishes was to be buried on Lookout Mountain above Denver, overlooking the Great Plains where he had spent a great deal of his life.
Much of this history is on display in the Buffalo Bill Museum, which was first opened in 1921 and literally built around the gravesite. In 1977, the museum expanded into a new building while the café and shop stayed in the established wood building. The museum provides a powerful source of revenue while Lookout Mountain Park enables audiences to experience the sights and splendor of the region.
That revenue and engagement can be seen in multiple ways. It’s tradition to throw coins on his grave, which are then used for maintaining the site and keeping up the museum. Meanwhile, the museum itself charges admission and also has countless items available for sale.
Mentioned as one of the most popular cultural and historic attractions in the Golden and Denver metro areas and featured in countless maps and guides for the region, the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave have opened up numerous opportunities related to the history of the region and country, all of which have been built around the literal gravesite of Buffalo Bill. These literal and figurative developments highlight what’s possible when a legacy is celebrated in such a notable way.
Celebrating History and Creating Engagement
Over 80,000 guests tour the museum annually and half a million people visit the gravesite, highlighting what it can mean to create engagement in an area that would otherwise be empty. Countless experiences have been created around gravesites and markers but the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave highlights what it means to cultivate something incredibly profound that uses the existing history and space in a way that enables engagement with audiences of multiple eras.
