The plaque reads:
"Howdy, Folks!, designed by sculptor Jeffrey Rudolph, was dedicated on July 22, 2000 in the middle of the 1000 Block of Washington Avenue. The fourteen foot tall bronze sculpture of William F. 'Buffalo Bill' Cody and his daughter [Irma] was provided through the generosity of Greg and Sue Stevinson and welcomes travelers to downtown Golden. The 'plinth' is made of stone slabs, fully landscaped on a traffic island as one enters the town."
The bronze sculpture is part of the Golden Public Art Partnership (GPAP), which was established in July, 1999, as a branch of the Golden Civic Foundation and received funding from the foundation, the City of Golden and from private contributions. 'Buffalo Bill' is wearing his typical 'showman' garb of a leather, fringed jacket, cloth shirt, leather pants and cowboy boots with spurs. His daughter is garbed in a similar fashion. They stand on a plinth that features a relief of Bison skulls and typical scroll decorations.
"William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917) was an American soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), in Le Claire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US Army as a scout. One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill became famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes, which he toured in Great Britain and Europe as well as the United States.
William Frederick Cody ("Buffalo Bill") got his nickname after the American Civil War when he had a contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo meat. Cody earned the nickname by killing 4,280 American bison (commonly known as buffalo) in eighteen months, (1867–1868). Bill Comstock also had the nickname. Cody and Comstock competed in a buffalo-shooting match over the exclusive right to use the name, which Cody won by killing 69 bison to Comstock's 48.
Cody had documented service as a soldier during the Civil War and as Chief of Scouts for the Third Cavalry during the Plains Wars. He claimed to have had many jobs, including as a trapper, bullwhacker, "Fifty-Niner" in Colorado, a Pony Express rider in 1860, wagonmaster, stagecoach driver, and a hotel manager, but historians have had difficulty documenting them, and he may have fabricated some for publicity.
In 1872, Cody was awarded a Medal of Honor for "gallantry in action" while serving as a civilian scout for the 3rd Cavalry Regiment. In 1917, the U.S. Army—after Congress revised the standards for award of the medal—removed from the rolls 911 medals previously awarded either to civilians, or for actions that would not warrant a Medal of Honor under the new higher standards. Among those revoked was Cody's.
In 1977, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker's medal was restored, and other reviews began. Cody's medal—along with those given to four other civilian scouts—was re-instated on June 12, 1989.
In 1895, Cody was instrumental in the founding of Cody, the seat of Park County in northwestern Wyoming. The Old Trail Town museum is at the center of the community and honors the traditions of Western life. Cody first passed through the region in the 1870s. He was so impressed by the development possibilities from irrigation, rich soil, grand scenery, hunting, and proximity to Yellowstone Park that he returned in the mid-1890s to start a town. He brought with him associates for whom streets were named: Beck, Alger, Rumsey, Bleistein and Salsbury. The town was incorporated in 1901.
On June 3, 1917, Cody was buried on Colorado's Lookout Mountain (
visit link) in Golden, west of the city of Denver, on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, overlooking the Great Plains. His burial site was selected by his sister, Mary Decker. In 1948 the Cody chapter of the American Legion offered a reward for the "return" of the body, so the Denver chapter mounted a guard over the grave until a deeper shaft could be blasted into the rock." (excerpted from (
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