Buffalo Bill in Cody

The weather was pleasantly cool...not cold...when I left Red Lodge, MT this morning. It only took a little over an hour to drive to Cody, MT, my destination of the day. I would be spending the whole day at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This complex contains five museums: Buffalo Bill Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, Plains Indian Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum and Cody Firearms Museum.

The center is named after William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, a man of many aspirations, but most famous for his Wild West shows. His statue graces the front of the building, but his life was no exaggeration. I decided to check out the Buffalo Bill Museum first and I spent the longest time of my day there. Even though I knew some of his story, I learned a lot of other things, too. He earned his nickname while providing meat...bison...for the workers building the railroad in the Midwest. His reputation as a scout, Indian fighter and buffalo hunter resulted in many comic book stories in the 1870s.

This fame soon led to the Wild West shows. Buffalo Bill was very progressive in his views of women's equality, respect for the native Indians and interest in people from other countries. They all performed in his shows and even traveled around the world. They had displays of the real posters advertising those shows and Buffalo Bill's outfits, including the jacket shown below.

After lunch at the center, I visited the other museums. Here are some of the more interesting things I saw. An Indian war shield cover decorated with a raven, Ben Cartwright's (Lorne Greene) gun from the TV series Bonanza and a painting by American Western painter Frederic Remington.

After seeing all the taxidermy animals in the natural history museum, I was happy that they actually had some live ones. They had a live raptor program where handlers displayed and provided an educational talk on birds that are unable to be returned to the wild. Suli the turkey vulture was too imprinted on humans, Hayabusa the peregrine falcon could no longer fly, and Isham the red-tailed hawk lost an eye. There was also a bald eagle on display in the courtyard...it also had a damaged wing. It was wonderful to see such beautiful birds of prey up close.

It was almost a shame to spend such a nice, sunny day indoors. But, the forecast looks to be equally as good tomorrow! I'll be spending the morning revisiting Yellowstone, then onward to Grand Teton National Park. Looking forward to more great natural sights and majestic scenery!