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
In 1849, Isaac got gold fever and moved the family to the “stolen home” in LeClaire, while he prepared to travel by wagon train with a party of men to California, a trip he never actually made.
Young William recalled those early LeClaire days, when he had fun on the river with his boyhood friends: “I went sailing with two other boys; in a few minutes we found ourselves in the middle of the Mississippi; becoming frightened at the situation, we lost our presence of mind, as well as our oars. We at once set up a chorus of pitiful yells, when a man, who fortunately heard us, came to our rescue with a canoe and towed us ashore. We had stolen the boat, and our trouble did not end until we had each received a merited whipping, which impressed the incident vividly upon my mind.”
Isaac soon moved the family to Walnut Grove, northwest of LeClaire, where, in 1853, Bill’s older brother Samuel was killed when a horse he’d been warned not to ride threw him off.
Cody’s Nebraska Home
Continue along Interstate 80 to cross Nebraska. One of Cody’s most special places was North Platte, just outside his Scout’s Rest Ranch, which is found along U.S. Route 30. As an army scout, working out of Fort McPherson, Bill ranched about 4,000 acres northwest of the fort. He enjoyed the life of hunting and scouting, both for the Army and for the railroad, and he often guided foreign dignitaries and shared these open plains with men such as George Custer and Wild Bill Hickok.
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