Peter Plautz didn’t know what being a Cody meant until he was well into his 70s.

Adopted at birth, Plautz didn’t even know his surname until he was 16. Discovering he was a Cody didn’t change his life with his adoptive family and, at the time, gave it little thought.

It wasn’t until his own children were grown that he found out what being a Cody meant. “My children urged me to find out about my family background. So I did,” Plautz said.

Since beginning an investigation into his birth family’s history, Plautz has had a blast becoming familiar with the Cody family tree, which stretches back to the 1400s, he said. To be sure, he’s on a small branch of Buffalo Bill’s family tree as a “third cousin several times removed.”

“Obviously I have some Cody blood in me. I was giving riding lessons by the time I was 15, and I’m a country boy at heart.”

His distant relationship to the western entrepreneur, military scout and showman may have taken time to discover, but when he contacted the Cody Family Association he was quickly adopted into a new family a second time.

“I have a rather outgoing personality, so it was easy,” Plautz said.

Plautz and his wife, Kathy, were invited to join the Cody family two years ago in Golden, Colorado – most likely the final resting place of William Frederick Cody – on the 100th anniversary of his death. Buffalo Bill’s time of death is no mystery. Newspapers around the world reported his passing January 10, 1917. Yet rumors persist of a secret burial on Cedar Mountain, overlooking the city of Cody which was founded by Buffalo Bill in 1896.

In Golden, the ceremony wasn’t about wild stories of body snatchers bringing Buffalo Bill back home to his final resting place. It was about the Cody family. Not only was Plautz touched by the ceremony on Lookout Mountain, he was surprised by the loving nature of his newly found ancestry.

Monday he arrived in the Yellowstone National Park gateway city for the first time. It was a long trip from St. Petersburg, Florida. But the couple was all smiles by the time they got to their seats at the Cody Stampede. The four-day, nonstop reunion party was just beginning and already they were grinning from ear to ear.

“It gets more enjoyable every time we’re with this family,” Kathy Plautz said.

Togetherness is important to the association. Larry Benson, of Oregon, plays up his relationship to Buffalo Bill, even though when he was young he paid a price for bragging about his famous relative.

“I got beat up a few times by kids insisting, no, you’re not related to Buffalo Bill. My dad had to come down and show them my name in the book so they’d quit beating me up on the way home from school.”

When he can make it to the reunions, he’s often the life of the party as the spitting image of the family’s most famous member. But his pride doesn’t take a break between reunions. “I always look just the same, except for the coat,” he said.

Benson looks forward to the biannual events. He meets new family members every time he attends, and friendships are strengthened with family members met during previous activities.

“We have a great bond, like I’ve known them all my life.”

The family has a reunion once every two years. Family members from as far away as Finland and Brazil make the trip. More than 70 are attending festivities this year in Cody. The leadership picks the venue based on important places in Buffalo Bill’s history. Benson loves coming to Cody. He’s often asked to be photographed and even gets a “few requests for autographs.”

Association vice president Kevin Cody calls Benson the “most Buffalo Billish.”

This year the association chose northwest Wyoming due to the 100th anniversary of the Cody Stampede rodeo, said Cody, who was born and raised in the town that bears the family name. He is the great-great-grandson of Buffalo Bill and the association’s vice president.

“Every time we have a reunion we pick the location based on celebrations and anniversaries. This year it was easy,” Cody said.

Cody said Cody city administrators have been great hosts. “They welcomed us and provided us with lots of goodies. They’ve opened the town to us,” Cody said.

The association was started in 1925. According to Cody, while times have changed, the family stays true to the mission of togetherness.

Small get-togethers, called circles, meet yearly. The biannual reunions typically draw about six or seven dozen family members. The family always has fun, Cody said.

“We get a little rowdy sometimes, but no gun fights. We have something going on about every hour of every day.”

Association members were met at their first official function with Wild West actors, including a Buffalo Bill, Cattle Kate, Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, Frank Butler and Ike Clanton.

Cody has since moved to Georgia and works in the music industry as a musician and recording artist. But he knows the importance of staying close to loved ones and the fragile nature of families. And he regrets not being as active in the association earlier in his life.

Six years ago his father Kit Cody and uncle Barry Cody, great-grandsons of William Cody, were killed in a plane crash in Florida. The brothers were pillars of the family association.

In 2021, the association will meet in LeClaire, Iowa, to celebrate Buffalo Bill’s 175th birthday in his birth place.