Markers of History

Note from Scott: This post was orig­i­nally set to be posted this morn­ing, but WordPress’ sched­ul­ing func­tion didn’t work prop­erly (which seems to be an issue that WordPress blames on hosts and host­ing com­pa­nies blame on WordPress). At any rate, this post should have appeared before the Gosport Navy Yard post (to stay in the order I saw the mark­ers that day), but here it is, a few hours later than expected:

Direct-logged
In Commemoration of the Last Public Appearance of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody at Portsmouth, Virginia on November 11, 1916

Location: Water St, park­ing lot between High St & Columbia St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 3:10pm

Transcription of marker:

William F. Cody, asso­ci­ated with a Western exhi­bi­tion titled “Buffalo Bill (Himself) and the 101 Ranch Wild West Combined,” passed by this spot on a route that would take the parade to the inter­sec­tion of Washington and Lincoln Streets, site of the “Grand Finale.”

The suc­cess enjoyed by the Fourth of July cel­e­bra­tion known as “The Old Glory Blowout” at North Platte, Nebraska, on July 4, 1882, con­vinced William F. Cody to orga­nize “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” and tour the United States and parts of Europe. Buffalo Bill was and is a sym­bol of a glam­orous and col­or­ful era in United States history.

He lit­er­ally crated and shipped sam­ples of the “Wild West” to cen­ters of pop­u­la­tion around the world, giv­ing mil­lions of Americans and Europeans the oppor­tu­nity to view first hand a part of American his­tory that had cap­tured the pop­u­lar imagination.

Dedicated to William F. Cody, an illus­tri­ous American, remem­bered as the “Father of Rodeo,” “The First International Star,” and “America’s Goodwill Ambassador-at-Large”

Sponsored by Backtrailing Buffalo Bill Cody
Presented by the Fletcher Family, November 11, 1987

My impres­sions: I have to admit to not hav­ing much of a clue who Buffalo Bill was. Colorful and show­man are about the only impres­sions I have. I didn’t know of a Portsmouth con­nec­tion until see­ing this marker. I do won­der whether this marker is com­mem­o­rat­ing his last pub­lic appear­ance or his last pub­lic appear­ance in Portsmouth. I pre­sume it’s the for­mer, though I am not cer­tain on this point.

This marker is inter­est­ing to me, because it appears to have been pri­vately spon­sored and because it sits in a small area sur­rounded by park­ing lots and build­ings, which is to say, not in typ­i­cal his­toric Portsmouth.

Markeroni sta­tus: Direct-logged and await­ing its proper code in the Markeroni database.