Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Approach to the East Entrance
C
ODY,
W
YOMING
Y
ELLOWSTONE
R
EGIONAL
A
IRPORT
Population: 9,520 2.3 mi. (3.7 km) SE
Among the Wyoming gateway communities, the growing town of Cody is rivaled only by
Jackson for its complete range of tourist attractions and facilities. Cody has the advantage of
having considerably lower-priced accommodations than does Jackson.
William Frederick Cody, who, with George Beck, founded the town in 1896, was world
famous as Buffalo Bill, a name he won as a young man by killing more than 4,000 buffaloes in
a few months' time. His prowess as a hunter and Indian scout was exceeded only by his fame
as a showman. From 1883 well into the twentieth century, he toured the United States and
Europe extensively with his Wild West spectacle. He made a fortune but lost almost all of it in
well-meant, but mostly unsuccessful, speculative ventures.
The town of Cody was the terminus of the Burlington Route, a railroad that operated from
1901 to 1956. Cody still has some historic buildings, including the 1902 Irma Hotel, named
for Buffalo Bill's daughter.
The Buffalo Bill Historical Center houses five fine museums. For one admission price, you
can visit the
Whitney Gallery of Western Art,
the
Buffalo Bill Museum,
the
Plains Indians
Museum,
the
Cody Firearms Museum,
and the
Draper Museum of Natural History,
whose
interactive exhibits center around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Worth a stop is the
Old
Trail Town
just west of town on the road to Yellowstone. It's a collection of historic western
buildings, including one used by Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.
Other attractions include a nightly rodeo during summer months and, on a June weekend,
the
Plains Indian Museum Powwow,
a social gathering that includes competitive dancing.
There are two annual events in July: the
Cody Stampede
and the
Yellowstone Jazz Festival.
The Stampede is two days of “whooping it up,” with parades, rodeos, barbecues, and Western
entertainment.
U.S. Highways 14/16/20
This road (called the Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway by the Forest Service) goes west from Cody
to Yellowstone. Just beyond the rodeo grounds, if you park near the last building on the right
(north) side of the road, you can walk to the rim of the canyon of the Shoshone River (prop-
erly called the North Fork of the Shoshone) to see what's left of a geothermally heated pool at
DeMaris Springs. A sulfur mine was located a bit farther along the road before World War I.
