
09/04/2025
In September 1873, in an ordinary saloon, a meeting took place that would later be remembered as the beginning of a legend. Sitting with the stance of a hunter was Buffalo Bill Cody, already renowned as the greatest buffalo hunter and army scout of his time. Across from him sat Wild Bill Hickok, the feared and respected gunfighter whose reputation for deadly precision had spread across the frontier. Standing just behind, with a calm expression and a steady hand on Hickok’s shoulder, was Texas Jack Omohundro, the tireless cowboy who embodied the life of the trail and the cattle drive. In that single room, three worlds of the West came together: the scout, the gunfighter, and the cowboy.
When they decided to join forces in the show *Scouts of the Plains*, theaters overflowed with eager audiences. People longed to see, face-to-face, the men who until then had been spoken of only in frontier tales. Buffalo Bill displayed the skill of the scout, Wild Bill embodied law and gunpowder, and Texas Jack brought to life the cowboy’s world—lassoing, bronc riding, and the endless work on horseback. These performances were more than entertainment; they forged the collective image of the American West, turning flesh-and-blood men into enduring symbols of a new national mythology.
Fate soon parted their paths. Buffalo Bill became one of the most famous figures of his century, traveling the world with his spectacle. Wild Bill met a violent end in Deadwood in 1876, shot from behind while playing poker. Texas Jack, by contrast, died young without violence or bloodstained glory, yet left something far greater: he became the first famous cowboy in history, showing urban audiences what life on horseback truly meant. Nearly a century and a half later, we still search for their figures in films, books, and legends—because with them was born the West as we imagine it.