Vandrea Does America: Day 52 (Saturday 8/11/12)- Cody, Wyoming

Having gotten used to weather in the mid 90's waking in the middle of the night to thunder, lightening and rain was quite a surprise. The rain continued into the morning. Now we've heard plenty of thunder lately, but rain, believe it or not, was strange. We had initially planned to hike into a camp spot, before the weather butted in. Instead we decided to go to Wyoming.

When Isaiah mentioned to me that the Buffalo Bill museum was well regarded but costs $18 a ticket I was reluctant to check it out. To date that's the most we've had to pay for a museum. But then we remembered there was the matter of the "Cody fund."

Our wonderful Aunt Barb established a "Cody Fund" to be used on special occasions for activities expensive enough that we would otherwise balk. She explained she was in Cody and lingering at the doors of the same Buffalo Bill museum when she decided, "Hey, when am I going to be in Cody again, lets go for it." It's fitting we chose to do the same. Plus, the site actually considers itself 5 museums.

Even before entering the museum a man in period clothing greets you from the helm of his Chuck wagon, offering samplings of beans, cowboy coffee and bread, all cooked over an open fire. Since the beans had bacon and the coffee had grounds, Isaiah got twice the "Wild West" experience. I just munched on bread.
The museum's size alone is overwhelming and we struggled over where to even begin. Thankfully admission is good for two days, which let us take our time and get the most out of the experience. Half of the museum today and the remainder tomorrow. We spent a good four hours studying the Yellowstone Ecosystem, Buffalo Bill's life and a cache of Firearms and barely made it through half of the building.

In the Yellowstone Ecosystem exhibit you are guided through the different elevations and habitats of Yellowstone starting below 5000 feet and "scaling" all the way to over 12,000 feet. Each elevation or section talks about the animals that call the habitat home and includes more taxidermed bears and beavers that I can say I am comfortable with. We also learned that the animal we had identified in the Grand Tetons as a pika was actually just a measly prairie dog. One interesting note is that President Roosevelt can be credited for preserving not only Yellowstone but over 230 million acres in total during his presidency, more than any president before or after him, making him possibly the greatest conservationist that ever lived.

Now as we were in Cody, WY at the Buffalo Bill museum you can guess who the main star of the facilities was. W.F. Cody was a marshal scout who turned his Wild West exploits into a traveling theater production with Cody playing the role of Buffalo Bill. Though Buffalo Bill was fictional, with others claiming the title, Cody held such a reputation that to most everyone he was Buffalo Bill incarnate. As you enter his floor a smoke hologram of Cody greets you, which we tried to catch on camera, but, true to his life, Mr. Bill proved rascally. Memorabilia from his theater company and life fill all available wall space and give much praise to the real life hero and the town's namesake.

Directly below this floor we found much more to entertain us including a listening station where we spent half an hour hearing stories about many of the most famous outlaws in the West such as Jesse James, Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy. In the same area we took advantage of the "dress like a cowboy" display. See the pictures below. Advanced notice for the ladies: you may want to get a fan handy.

After viewing two different sections of the five part museum we were exhausted but decided to see the Firearms exhibit before leaving for the day. We walked around and looked at 1500 guns and only made it through the first floor! To really fully enjoy this experience it would help to not only be a gun enthusiast but also comfortable around giant taxidermied animals. As I mentioned earlier this definitely does not apply to me or much to Isaiah either. Though it seemed like we just looked at a bunch of guns for an hour or so, in reality we saw weapons from all periods of time, watched a short movie on early gun manufacturing and were dwarfed by the largest stuffed polar bear ever recorded which was killed by a woman. Also noteworthy is the record Adolph Topperwein set in 1916 when she shot 1952 out of 2000 clay pigeons at 16 yards. (It seems Amanda is more pro feminist than anti taxidermy).

Following the museum excursion we stopped by the Sierra Trading Post which offered samples from a cowboy cookbook including cookies and Carmel popcorn, then enjoyed the setting sun in the city park and finally walked around the downtown gift shops.