William Frederick Cody, known as Buffalo Bill, was a buffalo hunter, U.S. army scout, and an Indian fighter. But he is probably best known as the man who gave the Wild West its name. He was a mayor contributor in the creation of the myth of the American West, as seen in Hollywood movies and television.

Born in Scott County, Iowa, in 1846, he is supposed to have won the name "Buffalo Bill" in an eight-hour shooting match with a hunter named William Comstock. In the Civil War he worked for the Army as a scout in campaigns  against the Kiowa and Comanche. For his service over the years, Cody was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1872.

In 1883 he organized Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, an outdoor extravaganza that dramatized some of the most picturesque elements of frontier life: a buffalo hunt with real buffalos, an Indian attack on the Deadwood stage with real Indians, a Pony Express ride, and at the climax, a tableau presentation of Custer’s Last Stand in which some Lakota who had actually fought in the battle played a part. Cody made a fortune from his show business success and lost it to mismanagement and a weakness for dubious investment schemes. On January 10, 1917, he died and was buried at the summit of Lookout Mountain near Denver, Colorado.