Unique Claims to Fame

Five Museums Cody, Wyo.

ABOVE: The bronze statue, “Buffalo Bill—The Scout,” was dedicated July 4, 1924. It rests upon a stone base representing nearby Cedar Mountain, where William Cody is buried. (Photo by Alisalla/ Shutterstock.com)

TOP PHOTO: The Buffalo Bill Center of the West is comprised of five museums packed with memorabilia, displays and interactive exhibits. Tickets to the facility are good for two consecutive days. (Photo by Ridvan Ozdemir/Shutterstock.com)

By RAY BALOGH | The Municipal

The math of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyo., works out rather well: one admission price equals two days’ access to five rich and captivating museums and one extensive research library, all under one roof.

The inaugural museum, originally called the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, was founded in 1917 — the year William F. Cody, aka Buffalo Bill, passed away at the age of 70 in a log cabin across the road from the current location — and now ranks as the world’s oldest and most comprehensive museum complex dedicated to the American West.

The current quintet of museums share a building comprising 7 acres, or more than 300,000 square feet, of floor space, containing 50,000-plus artifacts and a research library boasting 30,000 books, 400 manuscript collections and more than half a million photographs.

The complex’s natural history museum houses a dozen raptors, including eagles, hawks, falcons, vultures, kestrels and owls, which are featured year-round in daily educational presentations.

The museums’ expansiveness in recognizing the man’s legacy is understandable. Cody rode for the Pony Express at age 15, served as a scout for the U.S. Army, worked as a town developer and railroad contractor, spent time as a fur trapper and gold prospector and gained

international fame as a showman and founder of “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” worldwide traveling extravaganza. Authors and historians widely recognized Cody as “the most recognizable celebrity on Earth.”

Each of the five museums embraces the history and culture of those who inhabited the West, and contain numerous fascinating displays, many of them interactive. Small wonder the admission tickets are good for two consecutive days.

Buffalo Bill Museum

The inaugural museum celebrates the life of William “Buffalo Bill” Cody “from birth to death and every adventure in between,” according to www.centerofthewest.org. Features and exhibits include: • Personal possessions of Cody, including the buckskin coat he wore as an Army scout, fringed show jacket and beaded gloves he donned for his Western performances, his various firearms and items reflecting his life as husband and father. • Displays and information on other Western characters, including the most famous of his show’s 1,200 performers, such as Annie

Oakley, Wild Bill Hickock, Sitting Bull and Geronimo. • “Bison and the West” exhibit offering “an up-close, immersive encounter” with the mighty beasts that once roamed the plains by the millions. • Deadwood Stagecoach, built circa 1880, accompanied by eyewitness stories. • A scale model of a “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” performance and a 28-foot-wide poster advertising his show for its first tour in

London in 1887. • A recreation of one of Cody’s hunting camps. • The chuckwagon, complete with gear, from Cody’s 8,000-acre ranch.

Plains Indian Museum

With one of the nation’s largest collections of Native American art and artifacts, the museum explores the cultures, histories, artistry and traditions of Plains Indian tribes. Features include: • The 1911 log house owned by Standing Bear, the Lakota chief and civil rights leader who appeared before the U.S. District Court in

Omaha in 1879 and successfully argued that Native Americans are

“persons within the meaning of the law.” • An authentic buffalo hide tepee, composed of 13 hides and measuring 19 feet in diameter at its base. • “Buffalo and the People” gallery, detailing the importance of the animal to the survival of the tribes.

Whitney Western Art Museum

Housing a world-class collection of Western art, the museum hosts exhibits grouped by subjects, including Western landscapes, Native American depictions, Western heroes and legends, wildlife and historic events.

Draper Natural History Museum

The immersive, kid-friendly museum centers on the sights, sounds and smells of Yellowstone National Park and offers a scavenger hunt through four ecosystems. Several items of Buffalo Bill’s showman wardrobe are on display, including his beaded leather gloves. (Photo by Gina Stef/Shutterstock.com)

Adventure passports are available to be stamped at six stations along self-guided tours through three “large, interconnected and immersive galleries”: • Expedition Trailhead, which allows exploration of two rustic cabins, geological samples and a naturalist’s study with reading material and an educational video. • Alpine-to-Plains Trail, a gently sloping, winding walkway through forests and a mountain meadow and past plains and basin environment exhibits. The ceiling of the 90-foot rotunda projects a continually changing Yellowstone sky. • Monarch of the Skies interdisciplinary exhibit, which integrates science, visual arts and references to Native American culture.

The exhibition’s focus is on the nesting ecology and movements of the golden eagle.

Cody Firearms Museum

Recognized as the most comprehensive firearms museum in the United States, the museum contains more than 4,000 firearms and another 6,000-plus related artifacts spanning more than seven centuries. Among the features: • Firearms dating back to 1400. • Tactile study sessions on the mechanics and safe handling of firearms. • A comprehensive timeline of firearms history, including material tackling the misconceptions about weapons in the Wild West. • A recreated Western town, a science center examining the “physics of precision,” a display of military weapons and long-range rifle and shotgun simulators.

Visitors can also experience chuckwagon dinners, horse rides, exclusive tours and special events throughout the year.

Public hours vary depending on the season, but the center is open every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

For more information, call (307) 587-4771 or visit www.centerofthewest.org.