"Hero and celebrated showman of the Old West, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody took on another role not known to most Americans, that of the western land developer and town promoter. In this study, Robert E. Bonner contrasts Cody's wildly successful career as an entertainer with his more disappointing business ventures to show that what worked so famously in one sphere did not fare so well in the other. Presenting a previously unexplored dimension of this popular figure - a chapter of his life that other authors have given short shrift - Bonner examines Cody's efforts as president of the Shoshone Irrigation Company to develop the Big Horn Basin through large-scale irrigation and town development. This account shows us a Buffalo Bill preoccupied with making a buck and not at all shy about using his fame to do it. Bonner draws on widely scattered papers of Cody's business associates as well as correspondence never before used in studies of the man. He discloses how Cody spent huge sums, bullied partners, patronized state officials, and exercised his charm in pursuit of developing the high plains east of Yellowstone National Park. And Bonner shows that, although Cody was less successful as an entrepreneur than as a showman, his efforts helped shape the city of Cody and the Big Horn Basin. With the famous Irma Hotel as a cornerstone, he built the first infrastructure of the Cody-Yellowstone tourist trade and connected his little Wyoming town with the wealth of the East through personal hospitality and travel. Laced with anecdotes and featuring more than twenty photographs, William F. Cody's Wyoming Empire is a look at an overly mythologized character. It shows that there was more to William F. Cody than the Wild West show and its mystique - and that we cannot construct a full picture of the man without understanding his entrepreneurial activities in Wyoming."--BOOK JACKET.