Me and Buffalo Bill

by

Ever since researching Annie Oakley for my Pink Pistol story, I’ve developed a serious fascination not only with Annie herself, but with the charismatic man who made her famous – Buffalo Bill Cody. In fact, In Her Sights opens in 1893 Chicago, the day after the closing of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. This is where the creator of the pink pistol sought out Annie Oakley and set the entire plot in motion for the Pink Pistol Sisterhood Series.

So when several of the fillies decided to meet in Deadwood this summer for Wild Deadwood Reads, I started plotting a route that would take me and my husband on a slight detour to Cody, Wyoming. Buffalo Bill made so much money in Chicago, taking advantage of the draw of the World’s Fair, that he used his profits to help found a town on the east side of Yellowstone, a town named in his honor. Cody was established in 1895.

In 1902, Cody built a hotel downtown – the Irma. It was named after his youngest daughter. He maintained two suites and an office for his personal use at the hotel. When Wes and I arrived in Cody after a long drive from Colorado Springs, the first thing we did after checking into our AirBnB was to walk the few blocks downtown and have dinner at the Irma.

The place was packed! More than a century later, this is still the place to be in Cody. Especially for their prime rib buffet. If you like meat, this is the place to go. I’ve never eaten so much meat in my life! In addition to the prime rib, there was ham, chicken, and crab. People don’t go there for the vegetables.

As you would expect in cowboy country, there were antlers used in all of the decorating. Gaston from Beauty and the Beast would feel right at home. 🙂 Lots of dark wood, too, authentic to the time period in which it was built.

My favorite part of the place, however, was the gorgeous cherry wood bar. This was a gift from Queen Victoria after Buffalo Bill brought his Wild West Show to London! They still use it today, though it doubles as a gun case.

After our meal, we waddled out of the restaurant and found Buffalo Bill himself on a bench outside. He was kind enough to let me grab a photo with him.

The next day, we spent all morning touring the large museum in town. Even the outside was amazing, with all kinds of larger-than-life statues paying tribute to the west Buffalo Bill knew and loved. I almost got run over by a pony express rider, but my heroic husband whisked me out of the way just in time.

We ran into Buffalo Bill again at the entrance to his museum, and the legendary fella was kind enough to allow us to take another photo.

At the Center of the West museum, they had an entire museum dedicated to the history of firearms. I didn’t care for much after about 1900, but my research brain was soaking in as many details as possible on the countless displays of earlier weapons. On the way in, I got to snap a quick photo with Annie Oakley. I knew all of our Pink Pistol readers would enjoy that. 🙂 The museum had one of Annie’s rifles on display next to one of Buffalo Bill’s. I got a little shiver when I saw them.

We spent the majority of our time in the museum dedicated to Buffalo Bill’s life and accomplishments. He really was a remarkable man and passionate about preserving the west. I nearly squealed with delight when I saw a diorama of the city-like area they set up for the Wild West show whenever they stayed somewhere for a significant amount of time. I saw where Annie Oakley’s tent would be and imagined my gunmaker finding here there.

Then I found her myself. Or some of her belongings, anyway. The museum boasted a display cased filled with one of Annie’s trunks, travel dresses, pair of gloves, rifle, and pistol. I felt such a kinship with her as I studied her belongings. What a wonderful treasure!

If the pearl handle on that revolver were just a little pinker, it could’ve been our courtship pistol!

My husband eventually gave up on me and went to visit another of the five museums while I took my time and savored every exhibit in the Buffalo Bill wing. So much to see and read and learn! Needless to say, I enjoyed every minute.

What was the last museum you visited?

 

Website |  + posts

For those who love to smile as they read, bestselling author Karen Witemeyer offers warmhearted historical romance with a flair for humor, feisty heroines, and swoon-worthy Texas heroes. Karen is a firm believer in the power of happy endings. . . and ice cream. She is an avid cross-stitcher, and makes her home in Abilene, TX with her husband and three children. Learn more about Karen and her books at: www.karenwitemeyer.com.

47 thoughts on “Me and Buffalo Bill”

  1. It sounds like you had lots of fun! I live in Wyoming, & have driven through Cody on occasion, but we are usually in a hurry to get to our destination, so we don’t stop & see the sights! I sure do enjoy reading about all of the history, however! Thanks for sharing your adventures!

    • I hope you get a chance to stop one day, Ami. It’s really worth seeing. There is an Old Town on the outskirts of town, too, that is comprised of authentic 19th century cabins that have been found around the state and reconstructed on the site to give an idea of what Cody might have looked like in its early days. 🙂

  2. Here is Great Falls, MT we have a history Museum, a Charles Russell Art Museum, and a Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and all are worth seeing. It is great to see how the history echoes in the present

    • Ooo – those sounds wonderful, David! Visiting Montana is on my bucket list for sure. We didn’t quite make it on this trip, but that just means I need to go back that way again.

  4. We have several local museums here. Go at least once a year. Both downtown and on University of Nebraska. Looks like a great time.

  5. Hey Karen! My all time favorite place, and I have been a few times when I was Vice President of our Artist Guild, was High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA. I have seen the great Impressionists like Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, and Edgar Degas, and Vincent van Gough to name a few. That was probably the best one since it was so many famous artist of that time. Another was exhibit was Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

    Thanks for sharing your trip with us and the wonderful pictures! I finished reading a series, Women In Pants but Stan Himes talk about independent women. In one of the books in the series these WIP were invited to Wild Bill’s show. And an interesting take on women from a male author!

    • What an amazing museum experience, Tracy! To be so close to art painted by the masters must have been incredible! And Women in Pants sounds like an interesting read!

  7. Cody is my favorite western town. It has so much atmosphere that I can almost feel its history. The last museum I visited was actually the brothel in Deadwood.

    • Ha! That was one of the few places we didn’t go in Deadwood, though I have to admit it sounded intriguing. 🙂 We visited the Days of ’76 museum and Mt. Moriah cemetery. Both were fascinating.

      • It was a guided tour and very interesting. I wanted to go because I’m setting an upcoming book in Deadwood in 1885. My husband first said he didn’t want to go, but he changed his mind when we got there. And men accuse us of that trait. : )

  8. It was one near Bay City, Michigan where there were fire engines, police cars, and boats. There were also antique toys. Thanks for the history lesson.

  9. I really enjoyed your pictures, Karen! I, too, would have gotten chills seeing the Annie Oakley memorabilia.

    Having grown up in North Platte, NE, I totally relate to your fascination with Buffalo Bill. While I’ve never been to Cody (I’ll have to get there!), Buffalo Bill had a beautiful home outside of North Platte that is beautifully maintained and a hallmark of the town. The first spectator rodeo was held in North Platte as well, in the location that is now Cody Park (my girls took swimming lessons there, we’ve had countless picnics, etc, there – a fun family park!). After this rodeo in 1882, Buffalo Bill formed his famous Wild West Show.

    Of course, North Platte is proud of its affiliation with Buffalo Bill and has lovingly memorialized him. Hope you get there someday if you ever come north again.

    Great blog!

  10. Oh how I would love to go there and Deadwood as well – We visited an art museum in FL – I was not impressed!

    • Ha! I’ll let you in on a little secret, Teresa. I’m not much of an art connoisseur, either. I love art that I can recognize, like landscapes and still life, etc. I’m too simple to understand the more abstract items. 🙂

  11. My husband and I visited the Buffalo Bill museum in Cody about 40 years ago. Seeing your pictures Nd reading your descriptions brought back fond memories.
    Love your books and the Pink Petticoats series.

  12. One of many museums I immediately recalled was at Custer’s last stand. We were there twice, once just my husband and I and the next time with some friends who truly enjoyed it as well. They had Custer’s white fringed 2 piece outfit on display, which he supposedly was wearing at the time of his final battle. It definitely looked it’s age. We love museums and have gone to a barbed wire museum in Oklahoma for one, At my age of 78 we have been to so many I cannot recall the names of the majority of them. Needless to say, the ones my husband cherished was every battle site we passed, one being near Chattanooga, TN. Chickamauga Battle field. There were more but I am not big into them.

    • I love seeing pieces of real history preserved, Judy. I imagine seeing Custer’s clothing inspired goosebumps. 🙂 I got to drive around Custer State Park, which was beautiful, but I didn’t have the chance to explore any museums associated with him on this trip.

  13. I last visited the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tn. I enjoyed your post very much. I would like to see that museum myself some time.

  14. Thank you for sharing your trip with us. The last museum I went to was the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, GA. We also have the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, which I have been to several times also. I use memories like these as Christmas presents for my grandchildren instead of getting them something that will clutter their room more.

  15. I second the comment for Panhandle Plains Museum. Also, the museum at Mesa Verde National Park is very interesting, just in case you might take a trip up through the Panhandle and into southwestern CO. Enjoyed your article and always look forward to your next book.

  16. I love the research as much as the story telling. I would so enjoy more museums if my darn knees could be trusted. Glad you had the opportunity to see Cody. It sounds wonderful.

    • Research is it’s own form of storytelling, isn’t it, Susan? 🙂 I never ceased to be amazed at how many wonderful tidbits there are out there to learn. So many amazing people and events.

  17. oh but this looks like such a fun place to visit. It has been a few years. the last museum we visited was Chicago’s art museum. our daughter was studying art and wanted to take a walk. and where did we end up? lol yup. spent two days walking through the museum. it was so wonderful.

  18. We live about 30 minutes from the Great Smoky Mountains and we’ve been there so many time. The Cherokee Reservation is in the Smoky Mountains and it’s a fun trip. They built a museum about the Cherokee people. It was amazing to see but so sad at the same time. We saw all kinds of things about the Trail of Tears. They faced so much hardship. They also told about their alphabet and how they’re starting to teach their language to the people again. How they lived and it wasn’t in tepees. Amazing place to visit.

    • I bet you would really like it, Kit. They have an Old Town area there too that has about 20 log cabins from the late 19th century that were found around the state and brought there to be preserved. That was neat to see, too. 🙂

  23. The most recent museum we visited was at the Andersonville National Historic Site, Located there is the National Prisoner of War Museum which covers “American” prisoners of war from before the Revolutionary War through current times. Also included at the site is the preserved former Andersonville Prison, a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the final fourteen months of the American Civil War and the Andersonville National Cemetery. The museum was well set up and very interesting. Unfortunately, it was further than we thought from where we were staying and we didn’t get to spend as much time as we wished. We visited the grave of a friend and his wife who are buried there. We will visit again if we are in the area.

Comments are closed.