Niagara Falls, Ont., first with a casino and eons ahead of this area in tourist promotions the last few decades, held a grand bust of a promotion with Wild Bill Hickock in the 19th century.
The promotion was a "Grand Buffalo Hunt" to be held across the river near the Horseshoe Falls at the end of August in 1872. The entrepreneur and grand promoter was Thomas Barnett, who owned a museum there.
Barnett founded his museum in 1827 and, before long, it was filled with thousands of exhibits and became a prime tourist attraction. However, he was taken with tales of the old Wild West and came upon the idea of importing a show.
In that period, both Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickock had Wild West shows. They were hard-drinking buddies personally, but rivals in show business.
Barnett spent a year organizing the promotion, traveling to Nebraska, hiring Indians, making arrangements to sign up Wild Bill Hickock and, of course, purchasing wild buffalo for the Grand Buffalo Hunt.
Posters of the event noted, "The Buffalos captured for this purpose near the foot of the Rocky Mountains, after one of the most exciting chases ever witnessed on the Plains, will be liberated in a large and beautiful park at Niagara Falls, Canada side."
The poster added, "This novel and most exciting affair will be under the direction and management of the most celebrated scout and hunter of the Great Plains, Mr. William Hickock, better known as Wild Bill."
The spectacle was to take place on a fenced-in, 15-acre site, which, the poster proclaimed, was ample to accommodate "fifty-thousand spectators." The actual event drew only 2,000 paying customers at 50 cents each.
Another treat touted by the poster was "The Mexican Vaquero Troupe," which would "attack the buffalos with dexterous throws of the lariat" and would also captivate the audience with "their wonder feats with the lariat in capturing and throwing wild Texas cattle."
Barnett even quoted Gen. George Armstrong Custer, who praised Hickock: "Whether on foot or horse back, he is one of the most perfect types of physical manhood I ever saw and then, as now, the most famous scout on the plains."
A special added attraction, which started the show at 3 p.m., was a Lacrosse match featuring native Canadians from the Grand River area near Brantford.
But things seemed to go downhill from there.
The hunters appeared, led by Wild Bill himself. There were four Indians and four Mexican vaqueros. They rode up to a pen where two buffalo and one Texas ox were enclosed.
A newspaper article of the event said, "The first game struck was a Texas ox, but he was not taking a lively interest in the affair and was soon turned out to grass."
They hunters hoped to get more action from the buffalo. A buffalo cow was turned loose, to no avail. As the newspaper article recounted, the buffalo failed to provide the "thrilling spectacle" and she "loafed around and then laid down."
They managed to rouse the buffalo to her feet. She was then lassoed and pulled back into the pen.
Next, the bemused reporter wrote, "A rather mangy looking bull buffalo" was prodded out of the pen but only managed to charge out "as leisurely as a deacon from church."
The Indians chased the buffalo and forced him to run around for a while but, the article said, after "fooling around like this, the bull stopped to graze." The reporter concluded his article by calling the "spectacle" a "swindle" and a "farce."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | August 26 2003 |