Cody, Wyoming, Buffalo Bill, and Rodeo!

Ok, I actually got out of bed early, and left for Cody. 

The road from Meeteetsee to Cody is like many in Wyoming, it floats up and down over rises and valleys, with a few streams under it and rock faces along the side.  There are a few more oil drilling rigs.  Halfway between the two is a former stage stop from an old stagecoach route.  You forget today that a trip that is maybe 30 miles and takes you under a half hour with your vehicle, took most if not all day by stagecoach, and that places like this were all over the west along the stage routes for the passengers to rest and have something to eat and drink and to rest or change horses. 

What an inviting stop!

I see a common thing out here. A really big deer crossing the road in front of me.  And in no particular hurry.

Along the way, I marvel at the really interesting rock formations.  The way the rock is formed, makes caves or various sizes all along here.  Even just along the highway, the rocks have small caves that small animals could hide in.  I had read a story about this area, that Chief Black Foot of the Crow Indians,  of the billings, Montana area, was found buried in a cave in this town.   To read more info about this interesting story, read, THE RETURN OF CHIEF BLACK FOOT.  Now, the finding of the chief's body has to do with a psychic, a woman who communicated with the dead chief, and how he led her to find him.  This cave site one you used to be able to get to, and up until just a few years ago, there were still some tiny Indian beads found there, but it is on private land, and they have stopped allowing anyone to get to it. 

Although this is a small one, they have huge ones here too!

Cozy home for a rattle snake?

One thing I have to say about Cody is that they really embrace their Western history and the events that make up their past.  They have a motel there called the Cowboy Village that is made up of little cabins.  There is the Six Gun Motel.  There are Indian Teepees everywhere, in parks as displays, and there are western signs everywhere.  Like large metal signs just set up on the top of a rise for no apparent reason, just for people to look at.  They have people on the streets doing things you would expect in a western town, such as trick roping, reenacting events, there is even a guy who walks around town as Buffalo Bill himself.  (More about him later).  The buildings have been saved and redone, and the streets are modern, with a nod toward their historic past.
 
My first stop in Cody is the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum.  The nice lady at the desk gives me the AARP discount (do I look THAT old?) without me even proving it.  By the way, admission for adults is $18.00.  And the admission is good for two days in a row.  Which makes a pretty good deal.  And, if you are one of those people who likes to look at every exhibit, and read every sign, you will need two days to go through this museum. 

Because it is actually 5 museums in one.  There is the firearms museum,  I like guns, I think they are beautiful works of art, and some are quite sexy, and I just LOVED this place.  But I love it even more when I see the big display case in the middle of one area.  Inside it are 'movie guns.' 

A progression of Rifles and Pistols

There is an art museum of originals, a Plains Indians Museum, a natural history museum, and one dedicated to Buffalo Bill.  There are also some rotating exhibitions, when I was there they had an exhibition about how Western clothes had changed from the past to present, and some incredible photos about people and life on one of the Indian reservations.

I start with the guns.  What do I see first?  Be still my heart:  The original gun and holster set used by Michael Landon in Bonanza, Little Joe Cartwright himself!  I am hyperventilating.  Then sitting next to it is Lorne Greene's rig, Papa Ben Cartwright himself.  On the other side of the case?  Dan Blocker's, Hoss Cartwright's rig.  Can this get any better?  Seems this Tibbals family owns all these!  This must be one heck of a movie family! 

"Have gun, will travel, reads the card of a man ...."

Little Joe's Left handed rig

Maybe not better, but it gets pretty nifty when it has the gun used by Dan Durant in "Johnny Ringo" and Gail Davis of the series "Annie Oakley."  And the rig used by Gene Barry as "Bat Masterson" in that series.  And the gun used by James Arness in "Gunsmoke."  And, are you ready?  The whole rig used by Richard Boone as "Palladin."!  The chess piece on the holster, AND an original business card signed by Richard Boone.  Neat.  They had  Gary Cooper's pistol used in the movie "Veracruz" and possibly "High Noon",and Zane Grey's Winchester lever action rifle.    They even had two presentation guns owned by Dick Cheney, including one double western rig, with two engraved pistols of his.  Really, really nice!

Dick Cheney's special engraved pistols and custom belt

And guns, and guns, every make and model you could ever drool over.  Winchesters, Colts, Rugers, Savage Arms, even a Gatling gun.  And downstairs they have a teaching room that has even more guns, and where they do some research and studies.  They also have some really nice limited edition and presentation guns, like the Colt series of famous western guns. 

This is the Hickcock Edition

I scoop my tongue up enough to take a look at Sharps' original cabin.  Of the gun fame, who also was an artist. 

Then onto the next part of the museum, the art section.  Do you like original art?  I like original art.  This place has original Remington and Russell sculptures.  Original Remington and Russell Paintings. And Alexander Proctor sculptures.  And this stuff is all sitting there right in front of you on a pedestal, right within inches of your grubby little fingers.  And no one is abusing them!  They have these little signs that ask you not to touch to artwork, that your fingers are not good for them, and man, I sure wanted to just fondle some of those Remingtons!  But they have a little exhibit on the wall that gives you all sorts of types of mediums, like copper, bronze, etc., and says, if you want to fondle, fondle this!  I am  like a kid in a candy store, I want to press my nose against those gorgeous works of art.  OK, I get inches from them, but man, what a rush! OK, they have people wandering around making sure no one is nasty to the art, but there are no alarms on these pieces, and there are benches right next to some of them, so you can sit and contemplate and drool all you want!  I drool.

These are Proctor sculptures

There are wonderful gardens outside the building that you enter through the main museum.  They have great sculptures in them, wonderful plants, and one holds the boyhood home of Buffalo Bill, which they had moved to this location.

Sacajaweya with moon

Bill's boyhood home

The next part of the museum is about the Plains Indians.  They have a full teepee in there, some displays about a earth hut, and trappings on horses, as well as how the Indians traveled with a travois, first with dogs, then horses.  There are great examples of clothing, headdresses, bags, moccasins.  It even showed a cabin that the Indians later moved into after they no longer were nomadic.  There were modern day examples of Pow Wows, and  clothing.

Plains Indians traveling

Headdress

Child's dress with elk tooth.  The more teeth, the richer the family was

Red Cloud's shirt

The next part of the museum was about Buffalo Bill himself, and even showed an actual film of a Wild West Show.  It had original clothing from Bill, like a buffalo robe, and had one of Annie Oakley's riding outfits and her rifle.  There were saddles that Bill owned and rode in.  This was a good collection of Buffalo Bill stuff, but the museum on Lookout Mountain had a better selection of stuff.  One thing that I did see that surprised me was an uniform that belonged to Buffalo Bill, while he was, are you ready -?  A Knights Templar!  Now that's a story i would like to know more of.  I did not know that there were still members in Bill's time.  In this part of the museum were examples of cowboy life, real chuck wagons, a full sized stagecoach, and some really fine examples of Bohlin parade saddles. 

Bill and Pals. 

Bill's buffalo coat

With Red Cloud

Annie Oakley's Riding outfit

Annie's rifle and scabbard

Bill's Templar Uniform.  I'd like to know this story

Bohlin Parade Saddle

The last part of the museum was a natural history museum, and had information about animals, minerals, and the like of the area, as well as fossils of dinosaurs, which were found all over the Wyoming area, and information about excavations that were done on buffalo jumps, and Indian sites.  By the way, a Buffalo Jump was a really smart way that the Indians had of doing a major slaughter of buffalo for their use, usually right before winter.  They would have a cliff, or a large steep ravine, and they would run the buffalo herd toward this cliff, and since Buffalo were big and did not turn quickly, and were running fast, and tight together, they would be able to run a large amount of buffalo over the cliff to their deaths.  The sheer numbers would take a fair amount of them over.  Any not killed by the fall were killed by the Indians below, and then the women would take over and carve up the meat, and sort bones used for tools, hides for clothes, coverings, robes. 

Depiction of a buffalo jump

The exhibit on the way western clothes had changed over the years was interesting.  There was even an exhibit by Stetson hats where they showed how a cowboy hat was made, and they had a wall of different styles that you could try on and see which one you liked best.  I must admit that I tried a few on myself.  The photos of the Indians was really wonderful.  All done in black and white.  I must admit that I really love to see black and white studies of expressive faces,and it seems that the lines and age of the Indian face lends itself to this very well.

By the way, the gift shop is really great.  They have a great selection of tee shirts and other very nice shirts, and if you like posters and copies of artwork, the selection is awesome!  Yep, I brought a few of those home for Franklyn.

Outside the Museum was a guy that sure looked like a young Buffalo Bill demonstrating roping techniques on a fake steer.  His son was demonstrating some trick roping.  I enjoying talking with them, he informed me that he rode in the Cody Rodeo at night, and played Buffalo Bill, and his son did trick roping and also team roping in the Rodeo.  When I asked him where he was from, he replied "nowhere."  Seems he and his wife and son live in their living quarters horse trailer towed by a tractor trailer rig, and they travel the country going to rodeos.  However, they were originally from Texas before they started their nomadic life.  The museum pays them to sit outside and talk to people and show off roping tricks.  Pretty nifty. 

Bill throwing a loop

I go to the Cody Visitor's Center, which is right next to the Museum, and I buy my Rodeo tickets for that night.  Every night during the summer, Cody puts on a rodeo.  the cost is $18.00 (that seems to be the figure for everything!) and i am told by the woman who sells the ticket to follow the signs for the "Buzzard's Roost  " that that is the best place to see the rodeo, as it is right over the chutes. 

By the way, I have a conversation with the nice lady who sold me my ticket at the Buffalo Bill Museum, and we discuss the burial of Bill, himself.  She tells me that Bill's will clearly stated that he was to be buried in Cody, Wyoming.  But the folklore about Bill and his burial on Lookout Mountain is that Bill was broke when he died.  That is a fact, as he had gone bankrupt with the Wild West Show a few years previous, and had been working with a few other shows as a headliner and lending his name.   He was visiting his sister in Denver when he died in January, 1911.  Well, it took until June before he was buried on Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado.  The rumour that the woman told me was that Bill's widow 'sold' his body to Denver for the money.  Well, it could be logical, since Bill and his wife stayed married their entire life, but had a very rocky marriage and spent most of it separated.  So, I would think there would not be a lot of love lost there, and cash, well, tempting.  Seems Cody offered $10 grand to anyone who would steal Bill's body and bring it to Cody.  The rumor is that someone actually did steal the body and Bill is really buried up in the hills outside Cody.  Since there is all that concrete over him, we will never know.  And there is no record that Cody paid out the bounty on the corpse. But it makes for a great tale.

Outside the Museum are two guys who are operating a real chuck wagon, and cooking up beans, coffee, and biscuits.  And handling out samples.  The beans are quite good, and the biscuits pretty flaky.  Bet that is not authentic.  They also tell me that the night before, someone got very injured from bareback riding, and broke their collarbone and went to the hospital.

The beans and bisquits were actually good!  I skipped the coffee

I see a fair amount of old cars traveling the streets in Cody, just saw a '62 Ford Futura.  that's not a common one.  The other thing I see a whole lot of is "Help Wanted" signs.  Just about every shop has one in the window.  In fact, in one shop, I talk to the sales clerk who is originally from Mass, and who moved out there a few years back with her hubby.  All her family is still here in Mass. Yep, leaving New England in droves for the West. Well, it does make the number one state in affordability, with no income tax, low sales tax and no tax on things like retirements.   The other thing I find (again), is that everyone counts your change back to you (and not from the computer off the register, the REAL way) and that everyone asks where you are from.  I guess since this is a big tourist area, everyone does it.

There are some very nice shops along Main Street.  They sell a lot of western items, and tourist things, like tee shirts, but also some quality western wear and great home decorating things. 

Main Street, Cody, Wyoming

I go explore the Irma Hotel, the hotel Buffalo Bill built and named after his daughter.  There is a awesome fireplace in the dining area that is made with native rock, fossils and some gemstones.  It is original to the building.  Also, the bar in the 'saloon' area is the original one from bill's time and is considered one of the finest examples anywhere.  It is a big cherry wood thing, with a huge back bar with mirrors and shelves.  The bartender jokes with me that the first thing they are taught when they come to work at the Irma is how to duck out of pictures.  It may indeed be true, because everyone seems to disappear when my camera goes up.

The cherrywood bar in the Irma

The Irma Hotel, Cody

The fireplace in the Irma - fossels, local rocks and gems

There is a man who roams the streets of Cody all day in full Buffalo Bill get up.  In conversation with this man, he tells me that his REAL name is William (Buffalo Bill) Cody.  Don't know who he was before, but he has had it legally changed to be like the old time Bill.  He claims he was fully sanctioned to do so by the family.  You must admit he looks a lot like the original, coloring, size.  And he sure does act the part, with authentic clothing, and being involved with Cody events.  Of course, he also sells photos of himself with you and does other promotional things.  When I finally left "Bill" I was wondering if his inflated ego and claims to be great at whatever he claims he has done, was original to him or a persona from the Real Bill.    Any way, I found it annoying. 

Buffalo Bill the current one

At 6PM each evening in the summer the Cody Gunfighters stage an exhibition next to the Irma Hotel.  This is a group of people who dress up in authentic dress with real guns and blank loads and act out a gunfight scenario.  It is free, but they "sell" you reserved chairs or $2.00.  Save the 2 bucks, you can get as good a view from the street, however, they do play to the reserved chairs, of course.  They use microphones, but they were poorly engineered the day I was there, and not much could be heard.  The first 20 minutes of the 'aact' was spent selling posters or themselves and trying to get donations.  OK, that might be the only way these people get paid, but I really hate begging.  They might as well have passed a hat, it had the same effect.  They did say they would autograph the posters for you after the performance.  If you wanted the autograph of a local kid who had a summer job playing a gunfighter outside the Irma. 

Cody Gunfighters

Doc (left) and Wyatt

I will say again the costumes were great.  There was a lot of loud noise and some good smoke.  What there was not was a good plot, (was there a plot?) nor any passable acting.  Buffalo Bill started it out (heck Bill starts out everything here, some Bill, any Bill) with the National Anthem, as everything starts out here, but after that, it just went downhill.  I tell you this that, because if you have something better to do at 6PM, don't blow it off to watch the Cody Gunfighters.  Just about anything would be better than this 'show.'  The one saving grace:  the two guys who played Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp were sure 'easy on the eyes.'  the lone woman in the crew played such a crappy role, it was embarrassing.  She was some haggard man crazy thing that kept searching pockets of the dead guys.  Why can't anyone do a GOOD gunfight out here?  The Dodge City one was only marginally better than this one. 

For my meal I went to the little restaurant that was above a gift shop.  They specialized in 'exotic' meats, and you can have buffalo, elk, alligator, and various other meats make into burgers.  Since i am a lover of buffalo, I had to have a burger.  Which was YUMMY!  I have got to find an outlet for buffalo meat at home.

I tour a few more things to use up time before the rodeo, and visit the Tecumseh Diorama exhibit that is touted all over.  It is in the back of a gift shop, and it's free.  they have a nice collection of Indian artifacts and some decent cowboy memorabilia, saddles and the like.  Just so you know, you will see LOTS of this stuff all over the West in exhibits, and you kind of end up rating the quality of the exhibits.  These were a solid C+.  the diorama was a big exhibit of various scenes of Western life, the western town, mining, railroad, a wagon train, complete with an Indian attack, a buffalo jump, Custer's Last Stand, and a wild west show scene.  All done up with little horses, and toy soldiers and Indians like we played with as kids.  I figured some adult still wanted to play with toys and made this huge diorama.  Throw in the HO scale trains, and it's a big kids delight.  Kids will love it, adults, not so much, but it's a place to kill a half hour if you need to.

Diorama, this is the cattle drive

They advertise Old Trail Town a lot here.  It is an exhibit of an authentic western town with real buildings and carriages moved from other locations.  The interesting thing is that it pretty much sits on the location of the original town of Cody, before they moved it a couple miles away to where it is today.  Admission is $18.00 and what you can see from the road is a lot of old supply wagons rotting int he middle of the street and a bunch of weathered buildings.  If you have seen a lot of these exhibits and building at various forts, and other towns before you get here, you will probably keep the twenty bucks in your pocket like I did.  If there is not enough western memorabilia in the world to keep you happy, you'll gleefully plunk down your cash and look at more tools and leather goods.

Old Trail Town

This is a pile of antlers at Trail Town

I arrive for my night of the Cody Rodeo and take the long walk to the back part to hit the Buzzard's Roost.  Like everyone else who showed up for this rodeo.  Guess that is NOT a well kept secret, huh?  I grab a seat in the front row that allows me to overlook both sets of  chutes for the horses and bulls, as well as the run out area for the stock.  Since most stuff takes place in the middle of the arena, such as when they end up stopping the cow with the rope, it should give me a good view.  It is also a great place to see the racers come off the third barrel.

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Loosening up

The Cody rodeo is sanctioned by the PRC (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association),but it is the lower end of it, the kids starting out, the ones who have not gotten their cards yet.  Think of it as Pawtucket versus the Red Sox.  They have little kids riding little baby bulls.  With LOTS of padding, but they try to stay on.  Hey, every Justin McBride has to start somewhere.  It still has some pretty good rides, and some really bad wrecks.  The roper I saw earlier in front of the Museum starts the show as Buffalo Bill (remember what I said, he's everywhere, like Santa in December) and they do a few rope tricks, a trick rider, and then the usual National Anthem.  They do some exhibitions.

Bill, whhich number, you pick. starting the rodeo

Everything here starts with the National Anthem.  More people should get with this program

Mounted shooting demo

They start with the usual event, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, tie down roping, team roping, barrel racing.  There were the usual skits with kids, and the rodeo clown, I must admit that i usually find these parts of a rodeo boring, but this guy was actually funny, and he did a really cute skit with kids and getting them to play 'dead'.  He wanted to see which of these 4 kids, two boys, two girls, could do the best theatrical die.  I must admit these kids played it for all they were worth.  What was even funnier was after he 'killed' them, he wanted them to continue to play dead, and he dragged one threw to the dirt and threw them on another dead kid, threw dirt on them, it was hilarious.  these kids got dirty, and loved it! 

Babies on baby bulls. I don't know if this was the kid that cried when he fell off and his daddy' had to rescue him!

Saddle bronc riding

I think this one made it!

Waiting to pick up a rider

One thing the Cody Rodeo does is allow you to have your picture taken on a bucking bull.  A real one.  Granted, they tell you that he was a bottle fed baby and is actually a pet, and he will stand there really nicely, but he is bucking bull and has all his faculties, and one person who actually did it said that they did warn you that he still could get nasty.  I didn't go for the $20.00. I figured I am sure not interested in sitting on a bucking bull if I am not interested in sitting on a wild horse!  Afterwards, they also do an autograph session with some of the rodeo riders.  Again, I think that's pretty nice, BUT I don't get too excited over a signature of some kid that may or may never be a name you hear on the PBR circuit.

Bareback rider

 Since this is kind of liek the farm teams, the number of riders who actually made the 8 seconds were few, and the number of ropers who made the proper catches were slim.  Lots of misses, few catches.  the ladies racing the barrels did the best, I think only one barrel went down.

Bailing to tie the cow

Stop and bail!

Holding on

Rank horse in chutes

Not a bad seat here!

Team making a catch

Pouring it on after the third barrel

Heading for home

Bet 8 seconds feels like a lifetime here!

A nasty one

The rodeo lasts about 2 1/2 hours and is a great capper to your day in Cody, and I point my truck south towards my motel room, and a new adventure tomorrow. 

A peacful moment in the back chutes after the rodeo

Closing the lights