AUG 29: Famous City Names of the West

Leavenworth, Kansas

A monument honoring Henry Leavenworth at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery in Kansas. (Credit: Library of Congress)

Henry Leavenworth (December 10, 1783 – July 21, 1834) was an American soldier active in the War of 1812 and early military expeditions against the Plains Indians. He established Fort Leavenworth in Kansas along the west bank of the Missouri River, across from the state of Missouri. The City of Leavenworth, Kansas; Leavenworth County, Kansas; and the Leavenworth Penitentiary are all named after him.

Leavenworth was born on Dec. 10, 1783 in New Haven, CT, and  was killed during a buffalo hunt on present-day Oklahoma on July 21, 1834.

Dodge City, Kansas

Named after Fort Dodge, which was named after Brigadier General Grenville M. Dodge, a “go-to” guy for Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army in the Civil War. Dodge worked for railroads in Illinois prior to the war, then, after being injured in the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas, he was assigned to Columbus, Kentucky to rebuild the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, which had been destroyed.

Maj. General Grenville Dodge during the Civil War. (Credit: Library of Congress)

Dodge was also a destroyer of railroads, having led one of the largest cavalry raids of the Civil War, during which his men destroyed 20 miles of Confederate rail tracks near Vicksburg, Mississippi. It essentially isolated the city along the Mississippi River, which was under siege by Grant and Union forces, from the east. When the city fell, Grant promoted Dodge to Major General. After the war, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad, which built the Transcontinental Railroad from Omaha, Nebraska west to Promontory Point in Utah. There, it connected with the line constructed west-to-east by the Central Pacific Railroad on May 10, 1869.

What became Dodge City in Kansas was initially named Buffalo City, but the Post Office Department rejected that name since there were other nearby cities using the word Buffalo. The founders then chose Dodge City, referencing both the fort and its commander at the time, Col. Richard I. Dodge. (This Dodge was noted for explorations throughout the West, being famous for naming Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.)

Cody, Wyoming

There’s no question this town in the northwest corner of Wyoming is named for Col. William Frederick Cody, born Feb. 26, 1846, on a farm outside of Le Claire, Iowa. At the age of 11, Cody worked as a “boy extra” for a freight carrying company and would ride on horseback up and down the length of a wagon train delivering messages between drivers and workers. At 14, Cody was on his way to the gold fields of California when he met an agent for the Pony Express, who signed Cody up as a rider.

He nearly missed out on the Civil War due to his young age, but he eventually enlisted at 17 in 1863 as a teamster with the rank of Private in Company H, 7th Kansas Cavalry, and served with them until his discharge in 1865.

Col. William F. ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody in 1907. (Credit: Library of Congress)

Cody later enlisted as a scout for the Army in Kansas and was attached to Captain George A. Armes and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. In 1867, with construction of the Kansas Pacific Railway, Cody was granted a leave of absence from the Army to hunt buffalo and supply meat to railroad workers. This is where he got the nickname “Buffalo Bill.”

Perhaps his greatest legacy is creation of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, a touring show which brought a taste of the American West to eastern U.S. cities, as well as Great Britain and Continental Europe.

In 1895, Cody was instrumental in the founding of the town of Cody, the seat of Park County in northwest Wyoming. In November 1902, he opened the Irma Hotel, named after his daughter. It remains in operation to this day.

Cody died on Jan. 10, 1917, at the age of 70 in Denver.  On June 3 of that year, he was buried on Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado, on the edge of the Rocky Mountains overlooking the Great Plains. Some family members and residents of Cody, however, said he should have been buried in the town he founded. In 1948, the Cody chapter of the American Legion offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who would secure Cody’s remains and deliver them to the western Wyoming town. Attempts may have been made, but no one succeeded. Buffalo Bill remains at rest in Colorado.