Pure Cowboy

Member: National Bit, Spur & Saddle Collector's Association and Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America

1900 Buffalo Bill Wild West Show Route Book

Item #BB120 /  $3,900.

Original 'Buffalo Bill' Wild West Show Route Book:1900

Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody) started a Wild West Exhibition in 1883 with Doc Carver under the name "Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition". The partners argued and split up, and in 1884 Buffalo Bill teamed up with Messrs. Salsbury and Bogardus to put the expedition on the road under the name "Buffalo Bill's Wild West".   This was the fabled Wild West Show and lasted until 1909 when it was joined with Pawnee Bill's show under the name Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Pawnee Bill's Far East".

Route books were published after circus tours - the most prized route books are those that included a day-by-day diary of activities, such as this publication does.  Many route books covered multiple years.  Some circus and Wild West Show stories are enhanced with every telling.  That's part of the mystique of the circus or big tent show.  So how do you sort fact from fancy with researching the history?  One way is to read old circus route books -- one of the most sought-out and scarce collectibles from Wild West Shows and Circuses.  The route book was published after a season and multiples of seasons sometimes were put together in one book.  They were the most accurate account of the show's activities for that season and were sold to those who had been employed on the show during those seasons and were often advertised to fans of the show in subsequent seasons.

The route book had a list of all the personnel on the show, usually broken down by department (ticket wagons, front door, performers, side show, cook house, property department, indians, cowboys, etc..)  In this route book, a huge number of stories - including that of a train wreck where many animals and a few performers were affected - are detailed.  The record of cities visited, dates played and miles traveled is complete and fully detailed.

This route book by George H. Gooch covers the daily schedule from 1895 to 1899 and details the daily events and personnel from the 1900 season in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. This booklet is an octavo printing from Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Co., Kansas City, Mo.  It has some childish or low literacy pencil writing on various pages.  Many accounts of interesting, hair-rising and sometimes tragic events are detailed in the pages.

William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was born just west of the Mississippi River near LeClaire, Iowa on February 26, 1846. At the age of 12, he worked for a wagon train going to Fort Laramie; one year later he participated in the gold rush to Colorado; at age 15, he rode for the Pony Express. By the end of his life, Buffalo Bill had come to symbolize the American frontier itself.

During the height of the Plains Indians resistance to white settlement, Cody returned to the prairies in the summer to scout for the Fifth Army. On July 17, 1876, just three weeks after Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were defeated at Little Big Horn, Cody's regiment intercepted a band of Cheyenne warriors. When Buffalo Bill, in his stage clothing, killed and scalped a Cheyenne warrior named Yellow Hair (often mis-translated as "Yellow Hand"), he reportedly cried out "First scalp for Custer!" Buffalo Bill the frontiersman had proven that Buffalo Bill the character was no mere actor.

In 1883, Cody created what would become Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a vehicle that propelled him to fortune and worldwide fame. The Wild West would run - in one form or another- for 30 years, charming crowds throughout the United States and Europe. In Europe, Cody was called "Nature's Nobleman" because he was someone who had grown up on the frontier yet represented all of those best aspects of civilization.

Despite his characterization as a figure from the past, Buffalo Bill always looked to the future. As a businessman, he invested in projects that he hoped might bring economic growth to the West. With his earnings he invested in an Arizona mine, hotels in Sheridan and Cody, Wyoming, stock breeding, ranching, coal and oil development, film making, town building, tourism, and publishing. In 1899, he established his own newspaper, the Cody Enterprise, which is still the main source of information for the town of Cody today. Taking advantage of his celebrity status, Cody was an early advocate of women's suffrage and the just treatment of American Indians.

By the turn of the 20th century, William F. Cody was probably the most famous American in the world. No one symbolized the West for Americans and Europeans better than Buffalo Bill. He was consulted on Western matters by every American president from Ulysses S. Grant to Woodrow Wilson. He counted among his friends such artists and writers as Frederic Remington and Mark Twain. He was honored by royalty, praised by military leaders, and feted by business tycoons. Cody was America's ideal man: a courtly, chivalrous, self-made fellow who could shoot a gun and charm a crowd. Yet as Annie Oakley put it - he was the simplest of men, as comfortable with cowboys as with kings.

(Biographical information courtesy of the Buffalo Bill Historical Society)

1900 Buffalo Bill Wild West Show Route Book / Item #BB120 / $3,900.

Click Here To E-mail Us About This Buffalo Bill Wild West Show Route Book

Contact Us To Arrange Your Purchase

Please contact us at your convenience:  michael@purecowboy.us or sarah@purecowboy.us

Members: National Bit, Spur & Saddle Collector's Association

The American West is celebrated and collected by people all over the world -- we offer easy international shipping, by either the US Postal Service, UPS, Federal Express or Container.

Pure Cowboy, 1770 West State Street, # 315, Boise, Idaho 83702

 208.342.5019 or toll free: 888.575.1890

All items sold by Pure Cowboy are for decorative purposes only.  All other uses are exclusively the buyer's responsibility

Copyright © 2008-2014 Pure Cowboy