They Stole Buffalo Bill's House
Tracking the showman and his home from LeClaire, Iowa, to Golden, Colorado.
Categories: Renegade Roads
By: Scott M. Fisher 04/01/2008
I decided to seek out that house, while covering some of the same territory that Buffalo Bill, both the boy and the man, traveled during his long, complex life.
My two college-age nieces, Melissa and Elizabeth Kidder, were game to go along, so I packed up the old truck with coolers, camping and hiking gear, maps, plenty of camera film and books about Buffalo Bill.
Scene of the Crime
We start our journey across the Mississippi River in Iowa off Interstate 80 at LeClaire, the scene of the 1933 “crime.” The marker notes the original location of the Cody home, while Buffalo Bill memorabilia can be found at the Buffalo Bill Museum, which also exhibits historic photographs depicting life in this river town when the steamboat was king.
While there, pick up the museum’s free map of the “Cody Trail,” a 25-mile car tour that loops around Scott County to sites related to the Cody family and other points of interest depicting early Iowa pioneer life.
Bill’s father Isaac was never one to stay in one place very long, so the family lived in several homes around the area. The only Cody house still standing on its original site is a limestone structure that Isaac built himself in 1847. Today, the restored home is filled with artifacts from the period when the Cody family lived in it, shortly after young William was born. (The William Cody “birthplace” cabin site has long since been reclaimed by Iowa cornfields.)
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