Chautauqua performers Chuck Baldauskas and Doc Durden present Buffalo Bill & Wild Bill: Pals Together Again at the Dangberg Ranch in Minden on Sept. 2.

William F. Cody worked as a trapper, gold prospector and Pony Express rider all by the age of 14. During the Civil War he became a wagon driver for a Kansas Union Volunteer Cavalry unit, as well as a clerk, messenger and a scout. It was as a buffalo hunter for the U.S. Army and the Kansas Pacific Railroad that he earned the nickname Buffalo Bill. In 1872 Cody became a stage actor where he later met Wild Bill Hickok. As a successful and established actor, Cody was able to develop his own outdoor production which became famously known as “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West”.

James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok went west at age 18 as a fugitive from justice, first working as a stagecoach driver, then as a lawman in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. He fought and scouted for the Union Army during the Civil War and gained publicity after the war as a scout, marksman, actor and professional gambler. He was involved in several notable shootouts and was shot from behind and killed while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. The card hand which he held at the time of his death came to be known as the “Dead Man’s Hand”.

This is a free outdoor event. It starts at 6:30pm. The park is located at 1450 Highway 88. Bring a lawn chair. Dogs are not permitted in the park.