Buffalo Bill's career as the foremost mythmaker of the Wild West began when he was involved in an Indian attack in Kansas and gained a reputation as an Indian killer.
The Pony Express forms a part of the myth of the Wild West and Buffalo Bill's legend incorporated his time he spent riding for the Pony Express.
After his death, Billy the Kid became a part of the Wild West Myth as dime novels fictionalized and romanticized his exploits to the extent that the reality was totally obscured.
The historical account of the shootout at the O.K. Corral has become the basis for many western shootouts in both literature and film.
Buffalo Bill used his Wild West Show to create much of what has become the myth of the Wild West; Indian attacks, cowboys, shootouts.
The Wild West Show was at the height of its popularity when it opened the World's Fair at Chicago and there it added to new features to the American myth, not just the western myth, "The Star Spangeled Banner" and the Rough Riders.
