Article Contributed on: 7/31/2009 6:43:59 AM
Buffalo Bill Days was last weekend - July 24 - 26 2009 - in Golden Colorado. A parade was held on Saturday July 25 and a great parade it was this year - probably the best one that I have seen - that of course is from the eyes of a photographer. Out in the street snapping shots of those period dressed Sporting Girls, Annie Olkies, Buffalo Bills and Clown and low an behold up the street comes this pickup and all of sudden the Elks were there. If it was not for the license plates on that truck, you may have missed the fact that it was the Elks riding on a float built by both the Golden and Denver Elks Lodges with their own Buffalo Bill sitting straddle of his trusty saddle while at the ready with his buffalo pea shooter. Unless you are lucky or unlucky enough to know everyone on that decked out trailer with a camera in hand to record that day for posterity.
But did those on the sidelines know what the Denver Elks have to do with Buffalo Bill Cody? And why it was significant that they were part of the parade that carries the name Buffalo Bill. Every one knows that Cody is on Lookout Mountain. But, do you know that he was buried at public expense there in Golden, where a small museum, and, a grave marker placed by his brother Elks honor his memory. The B.P.O Elks Denver Lodge 17 paid for the cost of his funeral.
You see, even with all of his fame and glory, he was broke. He had one very important thing going for him; he was an Elk and Elks never forget. Col. Cody was initiated into Elkdom by the San Francisco Lodge in 1877; but transferred his membership to Omaha Lodge No. 39 in 1897 and during his last years of life lived with his sister in Denver and visited the Denver 17 Lodge often.
Upon his death, Cody s body lay in state at the Colorado State House. On January 15, 1917 silk top-hatted officers of Denver Elks Lodge No. 17 escorted Cody's remains to the Lodge building at the corner of 14th and California where funeral services were conducted. Across the front of the Lodge Room there was a bank of floral tributes from across the nation and from abroad. The mass of flowers measured fifty feet across and twenty-five feet deep. Within the room, some 1300 Elks, Knights Templar, members of the Grand Army of the Republic, and Cowboy Rangers gathered.
The Lodge secretary called the name of William F. Cody. And yet twice again the name of William F. Cody was called, but Brother Cody did not respond. Then to the strains of an old Civil War hymn, Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground, the Hour of Eleven was remembered; the amaranth and clinging ivy were deposited with Cody; and the Exalted Ruler, on behalf of the remaining brothers, bade their brother Goodbye, good-bye until the hour of eleven shall regularly return. Thou art I and I am thou, thy name shall never be forgotten.
The grave on top of Lookout Mountain was not yet ready. Thus, Cody s body was kept at the Olinger's Mortuary, at the corner of 16th and Boulder Streets, for the next six months, being embalmed six times.
So you see, Denver 17 played an important role before and after Cody's death, insuring that he received a burial that honored his life and his contributions to the development of this nation's frontiers.