Home » Buffalo Bill’s spurs torched—on purpose.
Buffalo Bill - The Scout touch up

Buffalo Bill’s spurs torched—on purpose.

 

Buffalo Bill - The Scout. 3.58
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875 – 1942). Buffalo Bill – The Scout, 1924. Bronze. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, USA. Gift of the artist. 3.58

Sometime around 1959, Cody, Wyoming’s, iconic statue sustained a mishap due to vandals. Evidently, some nefarious ne’er-do-wells nabbed the spurs off Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s (1875 – 1942) monumental sculpture of William F. Cody (the town’s namesake), Buffalo Bill – The Scout.


Buffalo Bill--The Scout Dedication Ceremony
Dedication of “Buffalo Bill – The Scout,” July 4, 1924. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, USA. Mary Jester Allen Collection. P.41.503

Since 1924, the Scout has stood at the west end of Cody’s main street—and today, just adjacent to the Center of the West. Not long after the spur-cutting deed, a local repairman welded the spurs back where they belonged on the heels of Buffalo Bill’s boots.

Buffalo Bill - The Scout repairs
Mike Schaner welds spur into correct position on “Buffalo Bill – The Scout” in 1979. Photo by Gene Ball.

Unfortunately, they were upside down. Little did I realize that Bill rode spur-impaired for some twenty years. Apparently, not many of the Center’s visitors did either.

“Museum officials knew about the inverted spurs, but anticipating further vandalism, the decision to correct the error was delayed,” Carol Hill, editor of the Center’s quarterly newsletter wrote in 1979. “Most visitors did not notice, but one who did was Dick Spencer, publisher of the Western Horseman. His letter to Gene Ball, the Center’s public relations director, produced some immediate action.”

Ball enlisted Gene Calhoun and Mike Schaner of Calhoun’s then newly-opened Caleco Bronze Foundry in Cody who agreed to do the “spur inversion project” as a favor to the museum.

Buffalo Bill - The Scout touch up
Gene Calhoun adds patina to spurs to match original finish on “Buffalo Bill – The Scout” in 1979. Photo by Gene Ball.

“Cody Gas Company loaned a portable power unit, and Calhoun and Schaner completed the work in about four hours,” Hill continued. “As a final step, they added a patina to the spurs to restore their appearance to match the coloration of the rest of the statue.”

So, spurred on by one who knew a thing or two about spurs, the Scout has had his spurs in the upright position ever since—check it out for yourself!

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Marguerite House avatar

Marguerite House

Marguerite House served as the Center of the West’s Acting Director of Public Relations until her retirement at the end of 2018, and as editor of its member magazine, Points West, through May 2019. Following a seven-year stint as Business Manager for the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce, Marguerite moved “across the street” to the Center in 1999. She then held five different positions in three of the Center’s four divisions, landing in PR in 2005. “I think that [gave] me all kinds of perspectives for our readers,” she says. She enjoys writing (especially a weekly column for the local newspaper called “On the House”), cooking, and spending time with her six grandkids.

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