When I think of museums in smaller towns, I think of dusty shelves filled with relics of days gone by. However, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is not like that at all. Although not in a major metropolitan region, it has the feel of a major museum. It provides a lot of information, and the exhibits are interesting and creative. Visiting the museum should be near the top of your activity list when visiting Cody, Wyoming.
The Buffalo Bill Center is actually five different museums each with its own wing and emphasis. Some of the subjects may not interest you as much, but each is worth at least a basic perusal.
Finding the Center is easy. It is on the main road through town so you can’t miss it. There’s parking in front, but on a busy day it might be full. As visitors enter the Center they come into a large lobby. All of the five museums have entrances off this main hall. The center also includes a snack shop and of course a gift shop if you are looking for a souvenir.
So let’s start with the left side of the lobby and go around to the right. The first museum is the Draper Natural History Museum. This museum tells the story of the natural world with an emphasis on Yellowstone and its animals. The displays include a number of preserved animals set in natural like settings. This allows visitors to see the features of the animals up close.
The museum’s exhibits also emphasize the different types of terrain and ecosystems in the area. There is a lot of information here. This is where I learned that the mountain goats I had seen at Devil Canyon are not native to Wyoming but were brought into the region and have adapted well here. Considering the discussions this past summer about forest fires and fire control, their section on this subject seems quite timely.
The second museum is the Buffalo Bill Museum which tells the story of William Frederick Cody or Buffalo Bill. Posters and information about his show are exhibited throughout the museum. Exhibits also include information on some of his contemporaries. The history of the Cody Stampede brings Buffalo Bill’s history into the present.
His family life was perhaps the most interesting element for me. Although Buffalo Bill married, he wasn’t much of a family man, and at one point he filed for divorce. His wife fought back, however, and the divorce was denied. Sadly two of their children died in childhood. These kinds of details really help to humanize a man whose persona has perhaps outgrown the reality of his life.
The third museum inside the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is the Plains Indians Museum. Having been an anthropology major in college, my professor put a great deal of emphasis on the Pacific Coast Native Americans because that was his field of expertise. So while I was quite familiar with the coastal tribes, the Plains Indians were not that well known to me. My understanding of them came from their portrayal in movies and TV, certainly not the most accurate source of information.
The museum does a pretty good job of documenting the culture of this Native American group. A number of life-sized displays add a sense of reality. However, what I particularly appreciated was the acknowledgement of the challenges they faced when their land was taken from them. Having been nomadic much of the time, settling down into permanent homes was difficult for them. The museum gives documentation of the struggles, and I appreciate that kind of honesty that doesn’t try to make light of the challenges forced upon them by the government.
The fourth museum is the Whitney Western Art Museum. I thought this museum would be somewhat uninteresting because of my perception of what constituted western style art. However, the museum surprised me with the variety of art styles and subjects. Yes, there were cowboy scenes, and yes, there were landscapes of Yellowstone, but there were other pieces as well. Some were whimsical while others had an abstract element to them. I think the curators did a good job of showing that western art should not be defined too narrowly.
The final museum is the Cody Firearms Museum. Those who know me well know I am not a gun person. My dad was a hunter, and we had guns in the house, but I was never that interested in them. Despite gun safety classes and going out hunting once with a gun, I never enjoyed handling a gun. To me guns meant death, and I preferred to stay away from them. However, I have friends who love guns so I was interested in seeing what this museum had to offer.
It turns out the museum has over 7000 guns. The museum acquired a major collection of Winchester firearms in 1988. Today they have collections from all major firearms makers. They also have a variety of styles, sizes, and types of guns. There are cases and cases of guns. I almost felt like I was going to get lost wandering through all the aisles of cases.
One thing I appreciated about the museum was again the honesty about guns. There was a display that talked about the way different people feel about guns and mentioned things like gun violence and gun control. That desire to provide some objective perspective on this issue is something that shows a desire to be a place of learning, the mark of a good museum.
The Buffalo Bill Center of the West has many valuable resources for those that have an interest in any of the subjects included in their five museums. One could easily spend two or three hours here soaking up the information from the different museums. It is definitely a place worth exploring while you are visiting Cody.
Have you had a chance to visit this world class education center? What did you enjoy the most? Share your experiences in the comment section below. I look forward to hearing from you.