During his first visit to Paris in 1890, Dallin learned that Buffalo Bill and his Wild West company were performing in that city. Cyrus was drawn to their encampment where he worked side by side with the famous animal painter, Rosa Bonheur, and modeled a statue of a mounted Indian, titled Signal of Peace, which won an honorable mention at the Paris Salon. He later became a respected sculpture instructor at the Massachusetts School of Art, as well as a civic leader and archery champion, making his permanent family residence at Arlington Heights, Massachusetts.

Upon his marriage to Vittoria Colonna Murray of Boston in 1891, Dallin returned to Utah for a few years to create the Angel Moroni for the Salt Lake City LDS Temple as well as the Brigham Young Monument on Main Street. In 1895, he taught sculpture for one year at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia where he completed a figure of Sir Isaac Newton for the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C.