My bid is based on being able to provide 100 articles at $1 per article, at a rate of somewhere between 5 and 10 per day. I might be able to increase the rate to 10 per day, but I will need to know the nature of the articles to be written, how much outside research (if any) I need to do and how they will fit around other work I am doing. I am including a sample of my work below:
Before Cody ... Sheridan
Buffalo Bill well known at the inn
by Pat
“I have just been up to Wyoming, at Sheridan,” Buffalo Bill Cody was quoted in the Omaha (Neb.) Bee, “and it would not be a bad place for a man to lose himself. ... It was something of a surprise to me to ride into a bustling little city on a train and find one of the busiest and most thriving places in the west.”
The interview was in January 1894 and was picked up by the Sheridan Post (one of the town's two daily newspapers) for its Jan. 25 edition, according to Patti Atkins, who used the quote in her book, “Reflections of the Inn,” recounting the historic Sheridan Inn's long history.
Cody first saw Sheridan in 1876, when he came through the area with General Crook. That was a time, he told the Bee's reporter, “when a man had to go with an Army.”
Eighteen years later, what had been a campground at the confluence of the Big and Little Goose creeks had become the seat of Sheridan County, and Cody's visit to Sheridan – and the Sheridan Inn – was just one of many he and his family would make through the years. He brought his entire family to the inn for the first time on April 9, 1894, according to Atkins, who added they occupied rooms 36, 37, 38 and 39 of the south wing on the second floor.
Cody is reported to have been a part owner of the inn for several years. According to Atkins, that came about in May 1894, when the W.F. Cody Hotel Co. was incorporated and purchased the “entire inventory” of the inn from George and Lucy Canfield for $12,000. Cody owned one-third of the hotel company's stock.
A separate business, the W.F. Cody Transportation Co., was established on June 1, 1894. The transportation company worked in association with the inn and was managed by George Canfield – the inn's manager.
Atkins noted that the transportation company “was known for its fine thoroughbred horses.”
From the mid to late 1890s, Cody was a frequent guest at the inn, along with many of the performers in his Wild West Show. While in town, Cody auditioned local talent for his show, reportedly bringing in some of the “rankest broncs” available to test the mettle of would-be riders.
While Cody sat on the inn's wide veranda, the local cowboys would demonstrate their riding skills. An employee of the inn back in those days once told an interviewer that if a cowboy managed to control the horse well enough to ride it through the inn's doors and into the bar, the feat earned drinks all around, compliments of Cody.
Cody also reportedly planned his namesake town on the western side of the Big Horn Mountains in the Sheridan Inn's bar. The town, along with the Shoshoni Land & Irrigation Co. incorporated on March 20, 1895, was a joint business venture of Cody and Sheridan businessmen George T. Beck and Horace C. Alger.
A less pleasant memory for Cody was the suicide of his son-in-law, Horton S. Boal, at the inn. Boal, husband of Cody's daughter Arta, ranched on Pass Creek. According to Atkins, feelings between the two men were less than familial, and Boal resented being referred to as Cody's son-in-law. Boal was found dead in his room on Oct. 27, 1902, apparently of chloroform, which he'd placed in a shoe.
The note Boal left behind stated he had chosen that method of death because the only gun available belonged to his wife. He was 40 years old. He left instructions that his favorite horse be killed over his grave, but local authorities prevented that.
According to Atkins, Cody's next-to-last visit was around 1904, then he did not return until August 1914, nearly 10 years later. By then, Cody's Wild West Show had passed into history. His return to Sheridan was in connection with the Sells-Floto Circus in which, Atkins said, he had a “small financial interest.” After the circus performance, Cody led a parade on Main Street.
Cody died Jan. 10, 1917. His funeral was in Denver, at the Denver Elks Lodge Hall. Then-Wyoming Gov. John B. Kendrick, a friend of Cody's and a prominent Sheridan businessman (who would later be elected to the U.S. Senate) led the funeral procession to the Elks Lodge. There, a quartet sang Cody's favorite song, “Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground.”
