Did You Know Legend Buffalo Bill Once Hung Out In Sioux Falls?

Legendary soldier, scout, lawman, cattle rustler, gunslinger, gambler, and actor Buffalo Bill once hung out in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

According to the Minnehaha County Historical Society, Buffalo Bill Cody brought his famous Wild West Show to Sioux Falls on September 21, 1896.

It was the first of five visits the show would make to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Thousands of people came out to see the spectacle, that was set up on the shore of the Big Sioux River by what is now Riverdale Park in East Central Sioux Falls.

Buffalo Bill Cody was born in 1846 on a farm just outside of Le Claire, Iowa.

Buffalo Bill was a larger-than-life old West Cowboy, Gunfighter, Pony Express Rider, Stagecoach Driver, Civil War Soldier, and Buffalo Hunter which is where he got his nickname by killing thousands of buffalo while providing meat for railroad building crews

In 1883, in the area of North Platte, Nebraska, Cody founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a circus-like attraction that toured annually.

"Audiences loved Cody’s reenactments of frontier events: an attack on a Deadwood stage, a Pony Express relay race and Custer’s Last Stand at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Even more popular were the displays of western outdoor skills like rope tricks, bulldogging and amazing feats of marksmanship." - History.com

By 1913 Buffalo Bill's Wild West show was forced into foreclosure. In 1917 Buffalo Bill died of Kidney Failure at the age 70.

Buffalo Bill brought his Wild West Show to South Dakota several times.

• Aberdeen September 6, 1899
• Edgemont August 11, 1914
• Huron September 5, 1899
• Mitchell September 14, 1899; July 3, 1914
• Sioux Falls September 21, 1896; September 15, 1899; August 25, 1909; September 6, 1912; July 4, 1914
• Watertown September 4, 1899
• Yankton September 13, 1899; July 2, 1914