10 AUGUST 22-28, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ter of the 2005 nonfi ction work The Colonel and Little Missie: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the Beginnings of Superstardom in Amer- ica. Bill got plunked into multiple McMurtry novels, too — most prominently 1990’s Buf- falo Girls, as well as 2006’s Telegraph Days and 2014’s The Last Kind Words Saloon. But McMurtry died in 2021, and when younger fi lm-goers hear of “Buf- falo Bill,” they’re more likely to think of the serial killer in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs. Some communities that have long used his image in promotions are al- ready reducing that. Golden’s annual Buffalo Bill Days began in the 1940s as a trail ride to the Lookout Mountain gravesite before turning into a family- friendly gathering in the downtown area. But the festival’s 2024 iteration at Parfet Park revealed scant evidence of Western themes, with the exception of a single food truck, Rustler’s Rooste, and a small sign on the information booth with the Buffalo Bill Days logo (a cowboy hat over a pair of revolvers). The live band on July 27 was Ronnie Raygun and the Big 80s, which de- livered spot-on covers of new-wave favorites such as the Knack’s “My Sharona.” If Golden’s approach constitutes a trend, Cody, Wyoming is a big ex- ception. The community of just over 10,000 a short drive from the main Eastern entrance to Yellowstone National Park is still enthusiastically embrac- ing its namesake. The Buffalo Bill Dam is on the outskirts of town, and businesses such as Buffalo Bill’s Irma Hotel and the Buffalo Bill Village motel and gift shop deploy his moniker. And then there’s the Buf- falo Bill Center of the West, far and away Cody’s most impres- sive establishment. Statues of Buffalo Bill — one of him riding a fast-moving horse, another in which he poses like a statesman — guard the exte- rior of a complex that houses five separate institutions (the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum, the Draper Natural History Museum and the Whitney Western Art Museum) and a gift shop of Bill Carle’s dreams. But there are no rubber tomahawks. A perplexing question underpins the argu- ment over the attractions near Buffalo Bill’s Lookout Mountain burial place: Is what’s left of him actually there? “The Mystery of Buffalo Bill Cody’s Two Graves,” a feature on the Town of Cody’s website, suggests that his body’s location isn’t nearly as certain as it might seem. The piece maintains that representa- tives of Denver and the Denver Post offered Cody’s widow $10,000 to bury her husband on Lookout Mountain, “where they felt his grave could become a tourist attraction.” Because she was in dire fi nancial straits, Louisa accepted. But when two of Bill’s Cody buddies found out about the deal, they allegedly cooked up a scheme with the local undertaker to swap his remains for those of a local ranch hand whose corpse had gone unclaimed. Together, they headed to Olinger Mortuary in Denver, where Cody had been stored while authorities waited for the ground to thaw enough to dig a grave, “and switched the body of Buffalo Bill with that of the unlucky look-alike.” Shortly there- after, he was planted on Cedar Mountain outside Cody in a location that’s supposedly “a closely guarded secret.” When he’s asked about the veracity of this yarn, Friesen replies cautiously. He doesn’t want to anger any Cody residents, since he’s stopping at the Center of the West on an upcoming tour for his latest book, Galloping Gourmet: Eating and Drinking With Buffalo Bill. (At 6 p.m. on August 23, he’ll host “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Feast,” highlighted by a dinner made up of victuals that would have been consumed by Cody’s crew.) Hence the politeness of his response to the idea that Buffalo Bill is cooling his heels in Wyoming: “It is not true.” There’s less doubt about whether the lights at the Buffalo Bill restaurant and gift shop will be switched off at year’s end. That’s bad news for employees, many of whom are international citizens in the U.S. on work permits who stay in housing on the Tepee’s lower level. Carle, who lives on the building’s upper fl oor, will lose his home, too. Granted, H.W. Stewart still has several other ongoing ventures; the family handles three retail outlets in Grand Lake, Love- land’s The Dam Store, and concessions for the Ozarks Amphitheater in Camden County, Missouri. But Carle will take a hefty fi nancial hit, and he thinks Denver’s on the same trajectory. On average, he says, the restaurant and gift shop generate $200,000 per year in tax revenue for Denver, and Echo Lake Lodge previously churned out about as much. With the Lodge con- tributing nothing since 2022, Carle believes Denver’s combined shortfall could soon exceed $500,000 and grow from there. Clark thinks those numbers are high; the city estimates restaurant and gift shop tax revenues at $160,000 annually. And that doesn’t take into account other costs. For instance, Den- ver and Carle split the bill for water, which is drawn from the pricey Look- out Mountain system. “It’s 25 cents a gallon, so every time a toilet is fl ushed, it’s a quarter,” Carle says. Given such expenses, Clark insists that the gravesite amenities aren’t a profi t engine for Denver. But since thousands visit the site, he wants to offer them a positive experience when they come for the museum and the view. True, port-a-lets will be substituted for the Tepee’s bathroom facilities — defi nitely not an upgrade. But the city plans to have a food truck on site occasionally, as it’s done at Echo Lake Lodge. Because an assessment of the Lodge’s condition is due by the end of 2024, Clark thinks Denver will soon have a better idea of next steps for that build- ing. But there isn’t a Tepee time- line: City troubleshooters are slated to look over the property next year to determine what must be done and whether a restaurant or gift shop can ever be cost-effective again. Carle says he’s going to spend the week leading up to December 31 serving custom- ers instead of packing, so ev- erything may not be out when the clock strikes midnight. He’s already warned Denver reps about this likelihood, and Clark promises to be as under- standing as possible in light of Carle’s long-term relationship with the city. In the meantime, a Tepee employee has started a petition to keep the restaurant and gift shop open; it’s on paper at the gift shop but not online because “I’m not that sophisticated,” Carle says. Nevertheless, he doesn’t see a scenario where Parks & Rec leaders will change their mind. “Every third customer we have asks, ‘Are you really closing?’” he says. “And it’s so frustrating not to be able to tell them why — because I don’t know, either. But not one person has said, ‘It’s about time they got rid of you.’ Not one.” Email the author at [email protected]. Canceling Buffalo Bill continued from page 8 William F. Cody is celebrated in posters, stamps and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, the town he founded. MICHAEL ROBETS
