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Buffalo Bill Cody
The forearm and stock wrist feature multi-point checkering. The buttstock is fitted with a crescent buttplate with compartment. In 1863 Mike Russell arrived in the United States from Tipperary, Ireland, with $12.00 in his pocket and big dreams of fortune awaiting him on the Western frontier swirling in his head. He took a job with the Kansas- Pacific Railroad, and by the time he arrived in Deadwood, South Dakota, in early 1877, he had befriended buffalo hunter and future famed wild west showman William “Buffalo Bill” Cody and $516.00 to his name, which he
used to start a saloon. Legend states that his nickname “Gold Nugget Mike” was in reference to a heavy chain of Black Hills nuggets that crossed Russell’s vest. Russell also went by the nickname “Deadwood Mike,” possibly a playful moniker inspired by the popular period fictional dime novel character Deadwood Dick. In Deadwood, his dream of making it big on the Western frontier had been realized. The story goes that Russell was so successful that his wealth was able to help Buffalo Bill out of a financial jam. After hearing that his friend was short of funds while performing in England, Russell wired Buffalo Bill $20,000 on a day’s notice. A grateful Buffalo Bill showed his appreciation by
sending a stuffed buffalo for Russell’s Buffalo Bar, which was named after the legendary showman and for over a century has operated on Main Street, living on today as part of the Buffalo Bodega Complex. Russell and Buffalo Bill met in Kansas in the 1860s, and according to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, “Russell was probably Cody’s oldest and closest friend.” Around 1895, Russell sold Cody cattle and horses under Russell’s TE Brand, which Cody used to establish the TE Ranch southwest of Cody, Wyoming. At
the time of Cody’s death the 4,000 acre property, which borders the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, supported 500 head of cattle. After Cody died in 1917, Russell remained in contact with the Cody family until his death
in 1930. Cody received the nickname “Buffalo Bill” when after the Civil War he supplied Kansas-Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo meat. Note that the Kansas-Pacific was the same railroad Russell worked for before settling in Deadwood. Purportedly Buffalo Bill killed 4,282 buffalo in an 18 month period between 1867 and 1868. In 1883, he founded “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West”, a circus-like extravaganza that toured widely for three decades in the United States and later throughout Europe.
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