Senior Spectrum
Newspaper
Sept 2008
Our Other Publications
Generation Boomer
Magazine
on-line
Golden Pages
Directory
Seniors 4 Travel
Of all the states we’ve traveled, Wyoming seems to best represent the fabled “Old West” that books, countless short stories, articles and films have romanticized for decades. Think cowboys and Indians, buffalo, covered wagon trains, and ranchers, as well as various movies depicting the legendary Buffalo Bill Cody or the heroic sheriff who always “gets” the bad guys in a quick draw shootout at the local saloon.
One of the state’s major advertising slogans is “Forever West.” After spending a few days there this summer, we came to the conclusion that maybe Wyoming really is where the West began. There’s still lots of wide open spaces in Wyoming as well as interesting tourist sites.
Yellowstone National Park is located primarily in Wyoming, of course. We’ve told of our time spent there. Now we give you a snapshot of Cody where we spent two days, and a side trip to Devils Tower.
Devils Tower is the nation’s first national monument as designated by President Theodore Roosevelt on September 24, 1906. You can’t miss seeing it if you happen to be driving along State Highway 14, about 28 miles northwest of Sundance near State Highway 24.
The spectacular Tower prominently dominates the pine forests and grasslands near the Belle Fourche River. If you saw Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” you may remember the Tower was the place where an alien spaceship landed.
Devil’s Tower played an important role in American Indian folklore. The tribes called it Bear Lodge. Legend says that when seven young Indian girls prayed to be saved from a threatening grizzly bear, the ground pushed up growing higher and higher keeping them out of reach of the attacking bear.
Historically, the Devils Tower area has a very colorful past filled with conflict between the Indians and white ranchers and homesteaders who violated the peace treaty of 1851.
Rumors of gold fields in Montana in the 1860’s prompted frontiersman John W. Bozeman to establish a route through the state for fellow explorers. Indian skirmishes and range wars were the result. In 1868, Nelson Story was one of the first to drive Texas cattle over the Bozeman Trail into Montana and cattle soon replaced buffalo on the lush grazing lands. So much for the romance of the “Old West.”
We have friends who make an annual pilgrimage to Cody. This summer was our first visit, no doubt we’ll return some day to the community founded by Col. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody in 1896. Buffalo Bill’s international reputation stems from his popular career as a showman touring throughout the United States and Europe. His earlier life included a career as an Army scout and Pony Express rider. Most famously, Cody is remembered as a buffalo (correctly called bison) hunter, which he killed by the score to provide food for U.S. troops trekking Westward during the 1870’s to protect the pioneers from Indian attacks.
Buffalo Bill Cody reportedly loved the northwest Wyoming area, calling it “the foothills of heaven.” After Cody’s death in 1917 local citizens formed the Buffalo Bill Memorial Association. After several years the association got enough funding to start a series of internationally acclaimed museums in what is now called the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.
We spent the better part of two days at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center viewing Western art, crafts and traditions that depict the history of the American West, listening to a musical presentation and attending a wild life lecture by a local ranger.
The Cody Historical museums include the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, the Plains Indian Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum, the Draper Museum of Natural History and the Buffalo Bill Museum. All the museums are located at 720 Sheridan Avenue and the single admission price is $15 with a family rate of $40. For more information call 307/587- 4771.
There is a lot to see in Cody. The summer months feature a Rodeo every night. The historic Irma Hotel features the $100,000 bar, which was a gift from Queen Victoria to Buffalo Bill in appreciation for his performance in the Wild West Show in London in 1890. The hotel is a popular meeting place for local cattlemen and city leaders.
The West is fascinating to travelers from all parts of the world, and Wyoming is among the best examples of the West that was.