Buffalo Bill

In 1904, the legendary American showman Buffalo Bill embarked upon a comprehensive tour of 29 Scottish venues. Multiple dates were staged in the four big cities and single night events took place in towns up and down the land. The itinerary began in the Borders, reached the Highlands and finished up in the south west. It was all done by train - three of them. The entourage numbered 800 people and 500 horses! A personal appearance from Bill was guaranteed and two shows were performed each scheduled day, regardless of weather conditions. A canvas covered arena with 15000 seats was erected and dismantled as the travelling Wild West extravaganza rolled from one place to the next. It should be noted that by no means was the show themed exclusively around America. Military personnel from all corners of the globe were involved.

Buffalo Bill was born William Frederick Cody in Iowa, 1846. As a teenager, he rode for the Pony Express and later served in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars - receiving the coveted Medal of Honor. He then moved on to the showbiz circuit, touring across the States and eventually overseas. His nickname stems from a spell working as a buffalo hunter to supply railroad workers with meat. The travelling show featured re-enactments from the Wild West and many of the leading performers were already famous in their own right: Annie Oakley, Frank Butler, Sitting Bull and Calamity Jane being among them. Buffalo Bill died in 1917 at the age of 70 and it is reckoned he was at one point during his lifetime the most instantly recognisable face on the planet. So what does the story of an American icon have to do with my local lockdown wanderings? As you may have surmised from the intro paragraph, the Buffalo Bill circus stopped over at Dunfermline on its marathon Scottish trek. The venue was simply listed as the Race Park. I had actually been researching the history of horse racing in Dunfermline and had posted about the town's association with the Sport of Kings on a local history Facebook page. The nags ran at a venue known as Urquhart Race Park in the latter stages of the 19th century and a grandstand is shown on the OS map from 1895. Numerous reports of meetings appear in the British Newspaper Archive, along with a few accounts of disturbances and illegal gambling activity outside the course boundaries. Formal racing appears to have ceased around 1900 but the grounds continued to host other events and that's where our man Cody comes in. The Race Park today is a large square field on the western fringes of Dunfermline, adjacent to McKane Park rugby stadium. No traces of the wooden grandstand remain. I had walked around on one of my expeditions during the first lockdown. As I trudged the perimeter I noticed the high boundary stone wall and simply assumed it marked nothing more than the edge of the Logie Estate, upon whose grounds I was exploring. At a later date I found the racecourse on the old maps and started to piece the story together. I wrote a couple of short articles for local Facebook groups along with map screenshots and a crowd photo I'd unearthed online. (although it's not clear if this was taken at a horseracing meeting). Feedback was highly positive and somebody mentioned this was the place Buffalo Bill had visited back in the day. I knew he'd been to Dunfermline as part of a tour but had never given the matter much thought. Until now.

I started digging around and discovered several photos from the Scottish sojourn - although none of the Dunfermline show. I did however manage to find an advert in the newspaper archive along with many contemporary reports of the performances around Scotland. There were also a few retrospective articles written decades after the original event. One local resident related the story of Bill rolling up at the family coachworks to have his carriage wheel repaired and then leaving complimentary tickets alongside his payment. These were invaluable resources for figuring out how such an ambitious tour was staged in an era when motor transport barely existed. Several websites also carried information about the schedule and further details of the evening's entertainment. Since I have a good mental picture of the Edwardian railway network, I was able to quickly make sense of the itinerary and appreciate the logic behind it. My extensive knowledge of local routes made it clear why the Race Park had been chosen to host the Dunfermline date. The Netherton goods line ran alongside the venue and would have been the perfect place to park up the wagons and start building the infrastructure. The preceding show was in Falkirk and I have no way of determining the exact onward route to Dunfermline. There is the possibility the line through Cairneyhill was used, which means the whole caboodle might have passed by my house (although it wasn't there at the time). The jaunt then continued to Kirkcaldy and Dundee. Newspaper reports state the travelling party arrived in Dunfermline at dawn. 100 native Americans and as many cowboys were part of the entourage and there are anecdotal tales of the nearby Pitfirrane Hotel in Crossford being swamped by thirsty visitors. Must have been quite a sight for local customers to be confronted with a sea of Stetsons and headdresses! A major part of the evening proceedings as dusk fell was the illumination provided by powerful electric arc lamps - a distinct novelty at the time. The attendance at Dunfermline reputedly ran into five figures and no doubt the box office takings were healthy. People commented on my Facebook posts about how their (great) grandfathers had walked to the Race Park from across the region to see the action. I thoroughly enjoyed researching the story and it pleases me to pass on information that others find interesting or - even better - have a personal connection to. It's always satisfying to give something back.

That was my little project done and dusted. Or so I thought. Out of the blue, a message arrived from Dunfermline Press reporter Ally McRoberts. He had seen my post about the racecourse on Facebook and asked if he could ring me with a view to creating a local history article for the paper. I was more than happy to oblige and supplied my contact details. My dad spent his whole career as a newspaper journalist and finished up doing the sports pages for the DP on a part-time basis following a 30-year stint at the Edinburgh Evening News. The surname McRoberts sounded familiar and naturally I enquired if Ally had worked beside my old man. It transpired his older brother Kevin had been a colleague of my dad, who is apparently still spoken about in revered tones at the office. Of course I passed that little nugget on! I immediately confessed I hadn't done extensive research on the historical horseracing scene but had sourced bits and pieces online, enough to convey a basic outline. After ascertaining my profession and where I was from, Ally wanted to know exactly where the racetrack had been situated and what the landscape looked like nowadays. He certainly seemed to think it would make an interesting story for the paper as it was a part of the town's history that had slipped from public awareness. When I mentioned Buffalo Bill, we suddenly had a lot more to talk about and I gave as much information as I had. I said I'd package together a bunch of internet links in an email, along with a few screenshots. I did this over the weekend and included the crowd photo which actually came from a published book. Obviously this raises copyright implications for a commercial newspaper but I figured there must be a procedure and - anyway - that was for Ally to deal with. I tipped my dad off about the forthcoming article and he bought two copies of the Press, which I perused when I visited my folks. I was pleasantly surprised to see it covering an entire page and the transcription of the telephone conversation was spot on (shorthand or a recording app?). The picture had the requisite credit underneath. As I stated previously, it's unclear whether the gathering was assembled for a race meeting or some other event. Either way, it looked good and had the abbey in the background. Job done. Hopefully a few people across the Dunfermline area learned new facts about the equine heritage of the town and the appearance of the celebrated Mr Cody.

The year 1904 wasn't the only occasion the Wild West Show landed upon these shores. In 1891, Bill and his troops began a 3-month stint in Glasgow at the East End Exhibition Buildings which were kitted out to hold 7000 spectators. Ever the publicist, Cody assembled a team of cowboys to play a charity football match at Celtic Park. He also turned up at Ibrox Stadium as a special guest for a Glasgow Cup match. Naturally, he was clad head to toe in full regalia, including an outsize white hat. It is rumoured he deliberately took his seat a few minutes after the match had started so the crowd could witness him striding towards the directors box. Bill was never afraid to embellish his own legend and some historians believe that - while employed by the Pony Express Company - his actual duties on horseback were rather more mundane than the tales of dashing across the vast plains he liked to relate. The international touring schedule by no means limited itself to the English-speaking world. Buffalo Bill appeared all over Europe, including the eastern parts of the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire, a multi-ethnic tinderbox that would collapse in disarray after WW1. Popular perception of the day regarded cities like Debrecen and Temesvar (now, Timisoara, Romania) as the "Wild East" and when you dangle that particular carrot in front of the buff man, he ain't gonna turn it down.