Western history author and speaker Jeff Barnes brings the life and legend of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody to the Wayne Public Library for a Saturday, August 3, 1 p.m., presentation.
The talk is sponsored by Humanities Nebraska.
“Buffalo Bill’s Nebraska” covers Cody’s arrival in Nebraska as an army scout and follows him through his career as a hunting guide, rancher, performer, senator, colonel and showman while on his way to becoming the most famous person in the world.
“No one personified the West – nor personified America in Europe – like Buffalo Bill Cody,” said Barnes, author of The Great Plains Guide to Buffalo Bill.
“He spent an incredible quarter-century in Nebraska, transforming himself from a somewhat-obscure scout to the world’s first superstar. He was one of the nation’s earliest proponents of equal rights and preserving the Native way of life. He did that all from Nebraska, which is truly a story in itself.”
The presentation includes rarely seen images and seldom-heard stories of Cody, with the opportunity for questions afterward.
Barnes’s book The Great Plains Guide to Buffalo Bill is the first comprehensive travel guide to Cody’s activities on the Great Plains, including his homes, forts, battlefields, and related sites.
It includes the history of Cody and the sites, historic and contemporary images, maps, and useful travel information. The book is available at the lecture.
Barnes is the first and only Humanities Nebraska presenter to speak in all 93 Nebraska counties.
A former newspaper reporter and editor, Barnes lives and writes in Omaha and is a former trustee with the Nebraska State Historical Society, former chairman of the Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission, a trustee of the Union Pacific Museum Association, and a most-requested speaker with Humanities Nebraska.
He is two-time winner of the Nebraska Book Award and the author of eight books of Great Plains and Nebraska history, including Forts of the Northern Plains published by Bison Books in 2024.
