The General...

There is a fellow who for many years kept a small museum on Buffalo Bill Cody at the back of a bar in Catalina. He is generally known as "the general" but is as often demoted to "the colonel" .. no doubt because of the strong affinity he feels for Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill did in fact make his way to Oracle, where he established at least two mining claims. I have seen an original share to one of these claims .. one can only assume that the massive amounts of gold leaf affixed thereto represented no less than the exact amount extracted from the ground. There are also relatives who make appearances .. some from Cody, Wyoming, usually in the company of the General.

But the General has his own tale to tell. Its latest twist involves his attempts to sell the entirety of his collection to whomsoever promises to keep it intact as an exhibition. Apparently he lost the space in the bar at the same time that he lost the roof over his head, which turned out to be a mansion belonging to a woman of extraordinary means ("$30 million she has and not a dime less"). His benefactoress apparently got it in her head to turn off the hot water. He claimed in a fury that she couldn't be bothered with the expense and, no, no .. he wasn't having any of it. Not after all he's done, it was downright meanspirited. Now she is a funny gal but they'd been close, close friends, but she had her funny ways and didn't get on with too many folks. And she was also paranoid on account of all that money .. she was always afraid of losing it (by his account). But you know that had been his home and he did the repairs and such in return for his board. But he wasn't staying without hot water .. and he's been rich and he's been in dire straits but what she was asking was too undignified. And so he was living in the back of a jeep cherokee another friend had fortunately passed on to him, trying to raise some money and find a new home for his collection.