The tug-of-war over the final resting place of the Wild West’s most famous showman, William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, has been intense for more than a century.
While his will expressed Buffalo Bill’s desire to be buried on Cedar Mountain above Cody, Wyoming, locals were shocked at his January 1917 death. Then they grew angry when his widow “sold” his body to the publishers of The Denver Post, and he was buried on Lookout Mountain just west of Denver.
But was he really?
The mystery over claims that Buffalo Bill’s remains were stolen and reburied 500 miles away has puzzled historians for 100 years.
Archaeologist Josh Gates, host of the popular Discovery TV series “Expedition Unknown,” aims to dig into that mystery.
Now in its 15th season, Gates said he’s “just getting started” uncovering history’s mysteries.
That’s what brought the "Expedition Unknown" production crew to Cody last October.
They came to film actors who would portray stories about Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley and “buried treasure” supposedly still waiting to be unearthed in Colorado.
“The Lost Grave of Buffalo Bill” premieres at 9 p.m. July 2.
Several Cody residents were enlisted in the production when it filmed in northwest Wyoming last, portraying the historical characters associated with the mysteries of Buffalo Bill’s life and his lost grave.
What We Do
Cody local Brandon Lewis works at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, but frequently pops up in documentaries, movies and TV shows about the American West. If you need a Union soldier, mountain man or Buffalo Bill for your production, Lewis is ready at the drop of a historically accurate hat.
“I guess you could say I caught the bug for reenacting and doing living history programs for the public,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I used to work for the National Park Service as a park guide at Fort Laramie National Historic Site, and we would do all sorts of historic tours, talks and demonstrations in historic clothing.
“I’ve enjoyed it as a hobby, but I’ve made various connections since then.”
Lewis’ accolades include the PBS documentary “The Bozeman Trail,” the 2021 film “Custer’s Strategy of Defeat” and a short feature on the Battle of Red Buttes produced by the Bureau of Land Management for the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper.
He’s also modeled for many Western artists in his period-appropriate clothing as a reference for paintings and sculptures.
“I got shot up by Machine Gun Kelly a couple of years ago in Montana,” he said.
When the “Expedition Unknown” crew put out a casting call in Cody, Lewis was ready to go. He was asked to portray a younger Buffalo Bill for the slow-motion historical reenactments featured in the episode about Cody’s founder and namesake.
“I had enough stuff to be Buffalo Bill,” he said. “I've got a buckskin coat and some of the firearms, equipmentand other stuff he used. I wasn’t able to grow my hair as long as his, so I had to get a good wig. But I did manage to grow the facial hair myself.”
As Seen In …
Cody resident Adrienne Rose isn’t a historical reenactor but knows her way around playing a character. She had just appeared as Ariel in the Cody Community Theater’s production of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” when she got a message about “Expedition Unknown.”
“Some members of the community had seen me in that show, and they reached out to me through Facebook and asked if I’d be interested,” she said. “I said, ‘I would love to do that. What a fun thing to do.’”
Rose was asked to play Annie Oakley, the sharpshooter who shared the limelight with Buffalo Bill for 17 years in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.
Rose was able to style her hair based on reference photos of Oakley. Rocky Mountain Dance Theatre provided her costume, as Oakley is a prominent character in its annual summer production of “The Wild West Spectacular,” performed at the historic Cody Theatre.
“It was fun putting the look together,” she said. “My favorite part about acting and theater is just becoming that character, but it doesn't feel real until you get your costume on and you're on stage or in front of the camera. Once you have that costume on, you really feel like the character.”
Shooting On The Shoot
The shooting for the “Expedition Unknown” episode happened at several places in and around Cody: the Irma Hotel, Cedar Mountain and Buffalo Bill’s hunting lodge at Pahaska Tepee, right outside the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park.
The production team got the perfect person to portray a younger Buffalo Bill. In addition to having period-appropriate clothing, Lewis is also an experienced horseman, so he easily stepped into the role — and the saddle.
“We filmed for two days,” he said. “It was all B-roll footage they would run while talking to experts and various consultants about the history.
“They would give us a scene, something like, ‘You're out hunting buffalo out on the prairie. I want you to walk through the grass, and when you get to this mark, you'll kneel, take aim and shoot the buffalo.’ And that’s what we did.”
No bison were harmed in the making of this production. Lewis aimed a rifle filled with blanks at a taxidermized bison head, which would look real enough with editing and clever staging on site.
“One of the production guys was hiding behind and holding it so it looked like it was grazing,” Lewis said. “I took a shot from a distance, and the guy let it gently roll to the ground. So, hopefully, with the way they edit the shots in the final production, it’ll look like we took out a bison without harming one. It was kind of fun.”
Several rifles, revolvers and other firearms were used during the shoot, with safety overseen by personnel from the Cody Firearms Experience. However, one of the benefits of shooting Wild West vignettes in the real Wild West is that nearly everyone knows how to handle a firearm.
“I shoot guns with my husband,” Rose said. “So, when they asked me if I was comfortable shooting a gun, I was like, ‘Yeah, don’t worry.’ We were all firing blanks, but it was really cool.”
Lewis and Rose shot scenes together, portraying Buffalo Bill and Oakley chatting and shooting like the old friends they were. All the scenes were pantomimed rather than scripted, since no dialogue would be heard during these scenes.
“We didn’t have any speaking lines, so it was just acting,” Rose said. “Brandon and I pretended we were speaking about taking shots, and then we’d line up and take shots together. It was short, simple and fun.”
Marc Schmeiser, another Cody resident who cultivates the iconic white hair and goatee of Buffalo Bill, was hired to portray the older man in the latter days of his life. Lewis relished the opportunity to depict the younger, more adventurous side of Buffalo Bill.
“It was neat to be able to portray Buffalo Bill at a young age, and some of the various adventures he had over the years,” he said. “We filmed a little bit of everything from everywhere, all in one spot.”
Expeditions Unknown
The two-day shoot in Cody covered several stories for inclusion in the “Expedition Unknown” episode. Its title references the “mystery” surrounding Buffalo Bill’s final resting place.
The official chronology of history has Buffalo Bill being interred on Lookout Mountain west of Denver on June 3, 1917. His wife, Louisa, was buried alongside him in 1921.
There are rumors of a body heist that happened between Buffalo Bill’s death and burial.
Cody residents John Vogel, Fred Richard, and Ned Frost claimed they took a cadaver in a rubber bag down to Denver, switched the body with Bill’s, and transported Bill’s body back to Cody.
Buffalo Bill’s allegedly reclaimed body was buried in an undisclosed location on Cedar Mountain overlooking the city of Cody. The only memorial is a fiberglass statue of a white buffalo, given to Cody by the people of Golden, Colorado, as a “peace offering.”
Lewis filmed scenes on Cedar Mountain, and Schmeiser staged contentious exchanges between Buffalo Bill and an actress portraying Louisa. It was her decision to bury Buffalo Bill on Lookout Mountain, assisted by a $20,000 payment from the owners of The Denver Post.
There were also scenes filmed with an actor playing Windham Wyndham-Quin, the fourth earl of Dunraven. These scenes told the story of a stash of Irish whiskey that Dunraven and Buffalo Bill buried in Estes Park, Colorado, during a hunting trip in 1871.
Dunraven is alleged to have buried his stash of fine whiskey in Estes Park that winter, with the plan that he and Buffalo Bill would return and exhume it the following spring. They never did, and Dunraven forgot the burial site.
Lewis didn’t need to venture to Estes Park for the reenactment of the whiskey burial with Lord Dunraven. They were staged and shot at Pashaska Tepee Resort in Cody, with Shoshone National Forest standing in for what’s now Rocky Mountain National Park.
“They wanted to look at little snippets of history that aren’t as explored and that people aren’t as aware of,” he said. “The show will bring them to life and delve into the possibilities of what may or may not have happened.”
Rose wasn’t sure what mysteries were associated with Annie Oakley. Details on the episode were left ambiguous during the shoot, so she’ll be as enthralled and enlightened as every other viewer tuning in to the next episode of Expedition Unknown.
The Final Cut
Neither Lewis nor Rose has seen or heard anything from the “Expedition Unknown” production team since the two-day shoot ended. They’ll be among the millions of potential viewers watching the Discovery Channel when “The Lost Grave of Buffalo Bill” premieres July 2.
Both actors enjoyed the experience. Rose described the production as “communicative, professional and very organized.”
“Getting to play Annie Oakley was a lot of fun,” Rose said. “We got to shoot and shoot guns in a really beautiful location, and I got the experience of playing that historical figure on camera. It was fun to become Annie Oakley, even for a short time.”
Lewis, meanwhile, realized he needed to up his Buffalo Bill game. He left the shoot with a literal laundry list of garments and gear he intends to acquire to continue appearing as Buffalo Bill in the future.
“Long term, I'd like to put together at least one outfit like he wore in the Wild West show — higher boots, fancier undershirts and different styles of hats,” he said. “I always have my stuff ready, just in case.”
Lewis enjoyed the “Expedition Unknown” experience immensely. For any historical reenactor living in Wyoming, this would be a career highlight.
“I’ve had lesser roles in production that were a little more Hollywood than what they did here,” he said. “But it’s very difficult to go higher than Buffalo Bill, the world-renowned showman.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
