Traveling through the breathtaking landscape of Wind River Indian Reservation, I had a vision of Buffalo Bill: Wild, yet royal and deliberate, he sat tall on horseback riding alongside Indian chiefs through Wind River Canyon, about an hour south of Cody, Wyoming.

This picture of William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody (1846-1917) stayed with me for the remaining drive to this Wild West Town (population 9,000). The famous scout, soldier and storyteller founded the settlement in 1896 and his thumbprints have stamped its streets, buildings and identity.

Cody, the eastern gateway to Yellowstone National Park, is home to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. The world-class museum and proud spirit attract over one million visitors annually.

Even with its own unique contribution to Buffalo Bill’s legacy, this friendly town still talks about the controversy surrounding the fight for Buffalo Bill’s true corpse and gravesite now located in neighboring Colorado.

Cody's Buffalo Bill Historical Center attracts over one million visitors annually to this pleasant Wyoming town.

I boarded a historical trolley tour when we arrived in Cody. Trolley owners Mike and Margie Johnson showed historical pictures, relics, and used audio clips to describe Buffalo Bill’s influence on the town.

The 24-mile (38.6 km) tour included information on the town’s historical sites, geology, wildlife, and boasted about the Cody’s low crime rate, education facilities, and acclaimed museum and rodeo entertainment.

What intrigued me the most was the continuing controversy over Buffalo Bill’s burial. Buffalo Bill’s official gravesite is on Lookout Mountain, just outside Golden, Colorado, overlooking the vast landscapes where he loved to hunt, ride and scout.

Cody residents argue that the town’s founder should have been buried in their community. Residents of North Platte, Nebraska, where Buffalo Bill had a home, also claimed his body. Because of Cody's military service, Arlington, Virginia could have insisted on the Colonel being buried in their midst as well. Threats to steal the corpse kept Colorado on alert. To protect the site, Cody's grave was carved from solid granite and sealed with cement inside of a steel vault. His wife Louisa is buried beside him.

In his 1906 will, Buffalo Bill had actually selected Cedar Mountain, just outside of Cody, as his burial site. But Louisa Cody wrote in her autobiography Memories of Buffalo Bill, that the day before he died, he changed his mind, and had asked to be buried on Lookout Mountain: “It’s pretty there… You can look down into four states,” he is believed to have said.

Biographer Robert Carter explained that it was unclear exactly where Buffalo Bill intended to be buried, but he had planned to return to his beloved Big Horn country — the area of Northern Wyoming on the east slope of the Big Horn Mountains, where Cody is located. If he had made it back there before he passed away, he would have chosen to be buried on Cedar Mountain.

On January 10, 1917, when William Cody died in Denver while visiting his sister May Cody Decker, the city of Denver wanted to claim his body and erect a famous gravesite. Cody’s family finally chose to leave the location of the burial site entirely up to the city.