Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show Diorama At Fort Cody, North Platte, Nebraska

 

   If you happen to be driving along east-west U.S. Interstate 80 and are anywhere near the smack-dab center of the United States, might I suggest a visit to the Fort Cody Trading Post, which is just off the Interstate on the north side of exit 177 for the small Nebraska burg of North Platte.

   The North Platte Historic Preservation Commission might argue that there are a helluva lot more significant and interesting places to visit in North Platte, and they are most likely correct in that assertion, but the Fort Cody Trading post, while filled to overflowing with trinkets and tacky 1950's television western style kitsch, is also home to the wonderful hand-carved diorama of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show created by whittler's Ernie and Virginia Palmquist around 80 years ago.

   Ernie Palmquist was a swing/jazz band conductor in the decades prior to WWII, and a successful one at that. His band released a million-selling hit in the thirties (the pop standard "Music Goes 'Round and 'Round" - look it up on YouTube, you'll recognize it) and traveled all over the country entertaining fans.

   Virginia Palmquist was an acrobatic dancer who was featured in several Big Bands of the Swing era, most notably with Eddie Cantor's ("most notably" means I can't find any other info on bands she performed with).

   While traveling with his band, Ernie picked up whittling as a means to burn off nervous energy, and began creating circus figures during the band's down time (the band toured extensively, and recorded a number of 78s, but evidently there was a lot of down time).

   Ernie and Virginia married sometime prior to 1946 (I state this because by 1968 they had three sons, the oldest of which was a 22-year old Marine serving in Vietnam - I have no idea when they were actually married). Virginia started whittling along with Ernie after initially devoting her time to the creation of circus tents and painting of the figurines - this according to the same article that mentions their sons.

   Ernie's first carvings being circus performers and animals gradually lead to the creation of entire miniature circuses. According to the above mentioned article, that included a 50,000 piece Barnum & Baily circus replica that took 23 years to finish. Virginia Palmquist stated she had created at least 14 Big Top tents (Virginia sewed all the tents).

   According to legend (and my ten minute search on Google), Ernie saw Buffalo Bills Wild West extravaganza when he was a youngster and never forgot the spectacle, which was what lead to the diorama that is now on display at Fort Cody.

   

   This diorama is truly a wonder of Folk Art and is a joy to behold.