Buffalo Bill Center of the West

Wednesday  July 5, 2017    Buffalo Bill Center of the West

We started the day by taking Bo to Happy Tails Pet Boarding.  We knew we were going to be in the museum all day and we couldn’t leave him in the room or the car.  He might not be totally “happy” but at least we knew he would be safe.  Happy Tails was about 14 miles north of town so we made the trip to drop him off and then returned to Cody.

Just driving up to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is impressive.  There are tipis on the front lawn and several large bronze statues. 

This is not just one museum but five museums under one roof. 

1) Buffalo Bill Museum

2) Draper Natural History Museum

3)  Plains Indian Museum

4) Whitney Western Art Museum

5) Cody Firearms Museum

We started out by going clear to the back of the complex and visited the Plains Indian Museum.  After visiting the Forts and Indian Villages in North Dakota the exhibits here just seemed to bring everything together for us.  We walked through another earth lodge and saw tipis.  There was Indian ceremonial apparel, everyday use items, headdresses, necklaces, some of the most beautiful beadwork I have ever seen.  It is just hard to describe the array of items that were represented here.  All the tribes of the plains were depicted in all phases of their existence. 

shells adorn this robe

painting on a buffalo robe

buffalo headdress

beadwork vest

elk teeth decorate this dress

 

Buffalo Robe painted with scenes of the Sand Creek Massacre

Next we walked through the Buffalo Bill Museum.  Buffalo Bill (1846-1917) was quite the entrepreneur.

He started out as a Pony Express rider.  The riders averaged 15 mph and it took 10 days to transfer the mail from  St Joe, MO to Sacramento CA.  Because of his work as a messenger General Sheridan asked him to be the Chief Scout for the 5^th Cavalry.  His job was to scout out Indians and food for the army.  He also guided dignitaries on animal hunts.

After leaving the army he started his first Wild West Show.  He hired Indians and cowboys to put on a show to show the world what life was like in the Western United States.  Over its 30 year history his wild west show traveled over a quarter of a million miles.  I checked the map and his show performed in Ft Wayne, Bluffton and Portland. 

 It also traveled across the ocean and performed all over England, France, Germany and even went as far as Moscow.

I knew the Western Art Museum would be one of my favorite parts of the day.  I saw paintings and sculptures from my favorites: Remington, Russell, Moran.  They had an extensive gallery of paintings by numerous artists depicting the beauty of Yellowstone.  Much of this art was commissioned to promote tourism to the area. 

Upper Falls of Yellowstone River

I also discovered many new artists that had new and fresh ways to illustrate the beauty of the west.

If you are ever in Cody Wyoming you must stop and visit this wonderful museum. 

We headed back up to Happy Tails to retrieve Bo, who was happy to be back with us.  Right down the road was an unusual place called Heart Mountain Camp.  This was once the third-largest city in Wyoming.  During WWII this was a relocation camp for 11,000 Japanese Americans.  I knew there were several of these in the US, but didn’t realize that one was in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming. 

Back in the room I downloaded 392 pictures from Nan’s camera, does that tell you anything?  Her battery was dead long before we left the museum.  The last photos were taken by our cell phones.  Of course, my cell phone battery was soon dead too.

We had a big day!