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Did you know that the legend Buffalo Bill once hung out in Sioux Falls?

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Did you know that the 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.

William Frederick Cody, aka Buffalo Bill (1846-1917), Ned Buntline (left) and Texas Jack Omohundro (right). In 1872, Cody and Omohundro-Getty Thinkstock

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

Thousands of people came to see the spectacle held on the banks of the Big Sioux River near 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, hence his nickname as he killed thousands of buffalo while providing meat for the teams railway construction.

Grave of Wild West legend Buffalo Bill Cody-Getty Thinkstock

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

“Audiences loved Cody’s re-enactments 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. Demonstrations of Western outdoor skills like rope tricks, bulldogging and incredible marksmanship feats” – Histoire.com.

In 1913, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show was forced into seizure. In 1917, Buffalo Bill died of kidney failure at the age of 70.

1892: The program for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show at Earl’s Court, London. (Photo by Hulton Archives/Getty Images)

Buffalo Bill performed his Wild West Show in South Dakota on several occasions.

    • 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

Oldest frame church in Sioux Falls

St. Joseph Cathedral, located at 521 N Duluth Ave in Sioux Falls, was founded in 1915. But it’s not the oldest church in the city. Beaver Creek Lutheran Church in Heritage Park on the Augustana College campus, at 33rd and S. Prairie Ave., was built in 1892, making it the oldest timber-framed church in Sioux Falls.
Pam Cole, executive director of the Nordland Heritage Foundation, says there are some exciting events and future projects involving Heritage Park. Tours of this wonderful glimpse into the Prairies’ past are available on Wednesdays. – Sat. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and by appointment.

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