CODY, Wyo. (AP) – A television crew was in Cody recently to investigate whether a 1853 French Napoleon coin may have been shot by Annie Oakley.

The coin belongs to Meadow Merrill, a freelance writer from Bath, Maine, and belonged to one of her great uncles who played in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Band.

Merrill traveled to Cody with the crew of the PBS show “History Detectives” earlier this month to determine if her family legend that Oakley shot the coin was true.

“I’m a writer,” Merrill said after filming a segment for the show. “I love stories and wanted to find out if mine was true, and that’s where “History Detectives’ came in.”

Merrill’s family traveled to Cody before, when she was 10 years old, to research the coin but officials then at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center weren’t able to confirm the story, she said.

After watching an episode of the PBS program last year, Merrill sent an e-mail through the show’s Web site asking if they could help her confirm her family story.

She was contacted by the show’s producers in September and told her coin would be the subject of an episode.

“It’s been a fascinating whirlwind,” Dana said.

While the producers of the PBS show revealed the truth behind the coin to Merrill for the show, she said she has been “sworn to secrecy” to keep from spoiling the episode.

The new season of “History Detectives,” including the episode filmed in Cody, is scheduled to start airing this summer.

The story provided an opportunity for “History Detectives” to tell the story of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and Annie Oakley, program host Elyse Luray said.

“Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley were two of America’s first celebrities,” she said. “This lets us tell their story.”

While telling a compelling story from history is an important a part of “History Detectives,” its focus is to teach people to research family stories on their own.

“The Internet only gets you so far,” Luray said. “You need to look at primary sources like microfilm and archives that you can’t find online.”

It was that need for materials not available online that brought the show to Cody and the historical center.

“People who don’t come here don’t realize how important the BBHC is,” Luray said. “It really is one of the best museums in the country.”

In addition to the resources at the center, the crew also spoke with Northwest College music professor Mike Masterson, who has researched Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Band and re-recorded much of the music the band performed.