Wyoming

Visit Historic and Charming Cody

If buildings in Cody could talk, they’d tell stories of unsuccessful bank robberies, once-thriving mercantile businesses, enterprising hoteliers, unrelenting ghosts, frontier justice, time capsules and undying friendship.

It’s been 125 years since serial entrepreneur Colonel William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody founded this one-time rough-and-tumble frontier town. In the process of becoming a classic vacation destination and preferred Yellowstone gateway that it is today, the town attracted more colorful characters than you might expect for a teeny metropolis with just 10,000 full-time residents.

Many of the town’s famous buildings are located on Sheridan Avenue, the town’s main street, and visitors often spend hours strolling the street and exploring the galleries, shops, museums and restaurants that those buildings now house.

“Cody has been called the ‘most historic and charming town in Wyoming’ and an ‘American town that still feels like the Wild West,’ and visitors strolling along Sheridan Avenue quickly understand why,” said Claudia Wade, executive director executive director of Cody Yellowstone, the marketing arm for the region that includes the towns of Cody, Meeteetse and Powell and the valley east of Yellowstone National Park. “With the stunning mountain backdrop beneath that great big Wyoming sky of ours, it is easy see why Buffalo Bill Cody was inspired to place his namesake town here.”

Visitors can learn quite a lot about Cody’s history by listening to a free TravelStorys walking tour that was created in partnership with Park County Travel Council and Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The insightful 45-minute tour features brief, entertaining stories that highlight the independence, enthusiasm and visionary thinking of the town’s early settlers.

Here are a few of the places featured:

Cody Country Visitor Center – The first home of the Buffalo Bill Museum, built in 1927, 10 years after Buffalo Bill’s death. It was modeled after Buffalo Bill’s home at the south fork of the Shoshone River, the TE Ranch.

Park County Courthouse – Built in 1912, the Park County Courthouse features a clock tower reminiscent of the one featured in “Back to the Future.”

Chamberlin Inn – Newly arrived from Kansas in 1904, Agnes Chamberlin opened a boarding house on the site of what is now a lovely boutique inn. Her husband helped boost the family income by opening an onsite dentist office without the bother of obtaining a license to practice or acquiring useful dental skills.

Carnegie Library – The building that is now home to Millstone Pizza stands as evidence of the powerful role frontier women played in development and growth of the town. In 1906, a group of female leaders, all members of the energetic Women’s Club of Cody built the town’s first small library.

J.H. Vogel Building – Sometimes the town’s entrepreneurs wore multiple hats, as was the case for John Vogel, whose brick building – current home of The Cowboy Palace – served as both furniture store and mortuary.

For more informaiton, go to www.codyyellowstone.org/