06/04/2017
Rocky Mountain Mason
One hundred years ago today, Bro. William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was interred with a Masonic ceremony on Lookout Mountain. The Brethren of Golden City Lodge No. 1, who performed the honors a century ago, again recited the solemn words to a crowd of perhaps two-hundred.
It was 3 p.m. on June 3, 1917, when Bro. William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was laid to rest. The Brethren of Golden City Lodge No. 1 had assembled in due and ancient form to mark, before the world, that final testament of friendship and brotherly love.
In slow columns they walked, somber in the sunshine. Up the dusty trail to Lookout Mountain. The box must have been heavy – weighed in the memory of a million smiles, sold-out across the world.
The famous man was a member of Platte Valley Lodge No. 32, in North Platte, Nebraska. Golden City Lodge No.1, who bore his casket up the dusty path along Lookout Mountain, did so with honor as well as courtesy. Approximately 15,000 people ambled the long road behind.
In the vistas below, the city of Golden swung shadows beneath the meridian sun. The Brethren lowered the casket, ropes brushing, working at the wooden box, into the oblong hole there between the rocks. W.Bro. G.W. Parfet, Jr., raised his gloved hands, and clapped once above his head.
"The will of God," he said, bringing his arms, left over right, across his chest, "is accomplished." He dropped both hands to his sides, palms outward. "So mote it be." And then the ropes, working on the box, into the cool shade of dark ground.
Somebody began to sing.
Sleep, old scout and rest
On Lookout Mountain's crest
Where the rosy sun
E'er set his face at last
Where no unquiet dream
Disturb thy peaceful rest
In this, thy sovereign west...
William Cody came first to the door of the Lodge at Fort McPherson in the sweeping plains of Nebraska. The minutes of Platte Valley Lodge, February 12, 1870, show the Brethren read five petitions that night. Bill's was first. He was elected to membership on February 26, and then, on March 5, he was initiated an Entered Apprentice. So began his lifelong affiliation with the Fraternity. He was passed, but he failed his Fellow Craft proficiency on April 23rd. Unperturbed, he was raised to the Sublime Degree on January 10, 1871.
Bro. William Cody was a man of destiny. From a frontier birth between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, out there somewhere in the Iowa Territory, to the private audience of European royalty across the oceans, "Buffalo" Bill swept the world. Like a fire-hot brand, he stamped an image of the American frontier, crisscrossed with cultural clashes and manifest destiny, into the consciousness of an age.
His father died when he was 11 years old. By age 14 he was working the trail routes of the Pony Express. Riding hard through the brush, he must have honed the skills for which the world would remember him best.
And now he was sequestered in that narrow house apportioned for all the living. He'd died of kidney failure on January 10th, 1917, at his sister's house in Denver. He was baptized into the Catholic Church the day before his death.
In 1872 he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for service as a civilian scout to the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, for "gallantry in action" at Loupe Forke, Platte River, Nebraska. This medal was posthumously revoked under a rehashing of the rules and requirements of attainment in 1917, but, Congress ever-fickle, it was re-awarded him in 1989.
He assembled his famous Wild West Show in 1887. It toured eight times, ending in 1906. From London, Paris, Barcelona and Rome, he played for Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Kings Edward VII and George V, and Pope Leo XIII. He sold over 2.5 million tickets. He was an international superstar, and his brand was uniquely American.
On June 3 , a century after his death, Brethren of Golden City No. 1 once again trod the lazy switchback up to Lookout Mountain. Knights Templar drew their swords and stood on either side of the grave. The familiar words rang out. People gathered around, smart phones winking in the sun. All was silent as the roses were held up. Then the slow stoop of the evergreen. The Chaplain resounded scripture and, one by one, the Brethren walked away.
