Buffalo Bill Center of the West

This was another day spent at an outstanding museum, actually a complex of five museums.
William, Buffalo Bill, Cody founded his namesake town.  These museums tell his story and the story of the West that he so dearly loved.



DRAPER NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

We started here with a guided Wildlife Tour learning about the history of Yellowstone, the native flora and fauna and the impact man has and continues to play on the park and the world.

In the 1800s, 30 - 60 million bison, the symbol of this area, roamed the plains.  By 1920 there were 50.  Today they have been restore to about 10,000, 5000 of whom are in Yellowstone.  The scientific name for this animal is bison bison; buffalo is a western colloquial term.

Dioramas include wolves, moose, antelope, elk and grizzlies like this

Pika are the “canaries” of the Rockies.  These small rodents do not hibernate, instead foraging in the forest all year long.  They are being found in fewer numbers as the Alpine regions move up in altitude due to climate change.

WHITNEY MUSEUM OF WESTERN ART

Artist-in-residence Linda Raynolds worked on a clay relief for a plaster cast. 

We later saw her sketching at the presentation on Raptors.

 Alexander Phimister Proctor was an outdoorsman and adventurer but he is known as an animalier, an artist who creates realistic sculpture of animals.  One room in the Draper is dedicated to his process and his work.  His art can be found throughout the US.   This statue of Teddy Roosevelt , shown in parts, may look familiar.  The full statue stands in the American History Museum in NYC and played a role in the movie “Night at the Museum.”

Famous Western artists Harry Jackson and Frederic Remington are well represented

Jackson’s Pony Express Rider

Remington’s Mountain Man

Remington’s Studio near New Rochelle, NY, where he would tell tales of what he saw in the West and would sketch and paint.

PLANES INDIAN MUSEUM

When the Europeans arrived in America there were 500+ native tribes speaking over 600 languages.


What unified the Plains Indians was the bison, from whom they got food, clothing, shelter, tools and weapons.  In the 1800s the US government, lead by farmers and ranchers, had a policy of.no bison, no Indians.  That led to wars, murders and reservations.

It took thirteen bison hide to made this teepee. 

 Women took care of putting the teepee up and taking it down.

With the coming of the reservation, the Indian economy changed from bartering to cash, from what they gathered or made themselves to what they had to purchase for which they had little funds.  The teepee was no longer made of skins but now of canvass.

Then the teepee disappeared and "modern" homes with rooms were built.

 Their artistry, from old to modern, was displayed in exhibits of beadwork.  This is one of the old ones set against a modern image.

BUFFALO BILL MUSEUM

Buffalo Bill greets guests in this Heliodisplay.

William Cody went from bull whacker to bison hunter to military scout to Buffalo Bill.  He became the subject of Ned Bunting’s 700 dime novels.  Under the tutelage of Nate Salsbury, Bill became an actor.  He was a poor actor who forgot his lines but he was a captivating storyteller and that made him a great success.  He changed the reality of the cowboy from a rowdy to the image of a hero fashioning a Hollywood mythology.  He created the image of the cowboy and Indian at war when in reality it was the army and Indians who fought.  He took Buffalo Bill’s Wild West all over the country and even to Europe.  He consider his Wild West an educational experience; in truth it was a grand show.  In his best year he made $1 million.  But he was a poor businessman who died broke even though some of his ideas were successful for others.

Here he scouts for the Army

CODY GUN MUSEUM

The Hawken rifle was the preferred weapon for bison hunters in the late 1800s.

This is one of Theodore Roosevelt’s rifles

RAPTOR Q AND A

Out in the sculpture garden, Mobile Perch, a raptor conservation organization, brought out a golden eagle with a seven-foot wing span

a Kestral falcon

a red tail hawk


The second best tourist attraction in Cody is the Cody Cattle Company with its western all-you-can-eat dinner and show every night.  The dinner, as expected, consisted of beef, chicken, beans, slaw, corn bread, and potatoes and it was good.  The show is the cowboy music Anna Lee so loved as a child growing up in Denver.  The performers are charming and sing well.  The young performers provided additional enjoyment. 

 This was an evening that befit the area and was good Western entertainment.