Cody Wyoming

Buffalo Bill Historical Center
Cody, Wyoming
July, 2000

About 30 miles east of Yellowstone National Park sits Cody, Wyoming. An old west town that retains many of its historical buildings and its small town feeling. A big attraction here is the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. What a fabulous museum -- a must-see for anyone traveling to Yellowstone. It's actually four museums in one; there's the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum and the Whitney Gallery of Western Art. Above, one of the rooms is set up like an old lodge.

This museum has a two large wings of western paintings and sculptures by such renown artists as Moran, Remington and Russell. There is a wing of memorabilia and historical displays about the life of Buffalo Bill Cody and his famous traveling wild west show.

Then there was a wing that looped around like a maze. It was filled with what must be the largest collection of guns in the world. It started out with the earliest guns in history. From small catapults and bows and arrows to the more modern artillery like the M-16. It was laid out in chronological order and by type and manufacture.

As far as I could tell, every gun was unique. Flintlocks, pistols, shotguns, revolvers, machine guns and more. Can you see a Tommy Gun on the side of the display case in the picture below? Then there was a room laid out like an early 1900's gun mill and another like a frontier trading post.

But that wasn't all. Down the elevator was another wing with another 1200 guns displayed in somewhat random order. These were still being catalogued and having informational display placards produced.

When completed, the entire collection will be rearranged in to one huge collection.

While in Cody, we stopped by the "Noon Time Cafe" for the best green chili burritos north of Santa Fe. During the summer, Cody has a nightly rodeo, but we didn't go to it since we were headed to the "Daddy of Them All", the 104th Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

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