July 8, 2015 Buffalo Bill Center – Cody WY

IMG_20150707_172649Cody has a wonderful museum called the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.  It is actually five museums all under one roof on over seven acres.  You could easily spend an entire day there seeing the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Draper Natural History Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, and the Whitney Western Art Museum.IMG_0308

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North African Miquelet Jezail given to Jefferson in 1805 This gift influenced the inclusion of the lyrics “to the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine’s Hymn

Bill loved visiting the Cody Firearms Museum which has one of the largest firearms collections in the world.  They had firearms on loan from the Smithsonian as well.  They had firearms Bill had never seen.  IMG_0320I especially enjoyed seeing a musket once owned by Thomas Jefferson as well as a gun owned by Annie Oakley and several former U.S. Presidents.  I loved seeing the guns IMG_0310IMG_0311IMG_0312IMG_0309IMG_0313IMG_0316used on the TV set by Ben Cartwright and his sons on Bonanza as well as the Lone Ranger. Some interesting people in the development of firearms:

  • Oliver F. Winchester was a successful shirt manufacturer established Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1866
  • John M. Browning (1855 – 1926)
    • was the most ingenious and prolific arms designer America has produced
    • his designs were manufactured under patent assignment by noted firms like Winchester, Colt and Remington
    • from 1884 to 1901 he worked for Winchester and sold all his patents to them
    • he designed the Colt Model 1911, “Army .45”

We also spent a lot of time in the Buffalo Bill Museum which had many exhibits about the life of Buffalo Bill, including movie footage of one of his Wild West shows.  He took his Wild West shows to England and Europe, once performing for Queen Victoria.IMG_0329IMG_0315

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West is often called the Smithsonian of the West and we could see why!

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Crazy Horse

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Sacagawea

We really enjoyed our short time in Cody.  There were things we didn’t have time to see and added Cody to our list of places we would like to return to someday.

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