We began our first full day in Cody going on a guided
Trolley Tour. Their slogan says it all, “Give us an hour and we will give you
100 years.” Our two energetic guides, Michael and Vi, shared the story of
world-famous “Buffalo Bill” Cody while they spotlighted historic sites, scenic
vistas, geology, wildlife and old and new western attractions on our 20 plus
mile tour. They shared so much, I will try to cover just a few of them.
I will share the history of Cody, Wyoming first. The Cody
area was one of the last places in the west to be developed. Wyoming has only
been a state since 1890 and Cody wasn’t formed until 1896. A few cattle ranches
were established in the basin as early as 1878, prior to that the area was
inhabited by Crow Indians. Cody latched onto Wyoming’s 1894 Carey Act named for
Wyoming Senator Joseph Carey. The act’s mission was to reclaim and settle
public lands for private use. Cody then created Shoshone Land & Irrigation
Company with George Beck. The duo partnered with other “town fathers” and began
the job of digging the Cody Canal, a channel for irrigation water diverted from
the South Fork of the Shoshone River. Thanks to the canal, business and
agricultural interests began settling in the area.
Buffalo Bill had the vision to realize that a town needed
five things to survive … water, a newspaper, lodging, transportation and
visitor traffic. He set out to establish all five in Cody. His Cody Canal water
system was later augmented by the completion of the Buffalo Bill Dam and
reservoir in 1910.
Situated about 295 feet above the Shoshone River, the
Buffalo Bill Dam Visitor Center affords a breathtaking view of the rugged canyon.
You can look straight down from the open walkway across the dam to the Shoshone
River hundreds of feet below through the deep canyon to the Big Horn Basin
beyond.
Dating to 1905, Buffalo Bill Dam was designed as the tallest dam in the
world. Through the years it has helped turn the arid high plains of the
northern Big Horn Basin into one of Wyoming’s most fertile farming regions,
irrigating 93,000 acres from Cody to Lovell.
Construction on the original dam began in 1905 and the last
bucket of concrete was poured on January 15, 1910. Several contracts were
broke, as bad weather and floods hindered work. Laborers objected to working
10-hour days for $2.50, when US Fidelity & Guarantee Company took over the
project. Workers in 1906 demanded $3 for an 8-hour day and got it. The original
dam and other structures cost $929,658.
The first phase of the comprehensive
Shoshone Project cost $3.3 million, including payments for major canals, roads,
bridges, buildings and land inundated by the waters of the reservoir.
More recently a massive project to raise the dam by 25-feet
took seven years. Bureau of Reclamation, the lead agency in raising the dam,
began filling the reservoir to its new level in 1993. Staffed primarily by
volunteers, the visitor center opened in 1993. That year marked the completion
of a $132 million dam-raising project, a joint state-federal effort. The
dam-raising added about 50-percent to the amount of water stored in the
reservoir, enlarging the capacity from 456,000 acre feet to 650,000 acre feet.
We took a tour of the Buffalo Bill State Park, it was
established in 1957 and provided recreational areas and facilities along the
original shoreline. The enlarged reservoir inundated the former recreation
areas and required removal of the old park facilities. Buffalo Bill State Park
has been redeveloped as part of that project. We enjoyed the views from the
banks of the reservoir.
The State Park was not the only casualty of the dam, the
small ranching community of Marquette was settled years before Cody was
founded. But it was the decision to build a massive dam between the two spots
that meant an end to Marquette, submerging the settlement under what is now the
Buffalo Bill Reservoir, about 10 miles west of Cody. At the confluence of the
North Fork and South Fork of the Shoshone River, near the site of what was once
a large Crow Indian village, rancher George Marquette became one of the first
white settlers in the area. Accounts in the Park County Historical Archives
show Marquette, a German immigrant whose parents settled in Ohio when he was a
boy, coming to the Bighorn Basin in 1878. He was a fiddler, and he would go
around and play for all the parties in the Bighorn Basin. Named after
Marquette, the community got a post office in 1891, with Marquette serving as
postmaster. The town of Cody was founded in 1906, and the dam was completed in
1910.
But the popular notion that a bustling town was swallowed up
by rising waters is not true. People get the idea that there was a whole town
with all these different buildings. It was basically just a post office, with
perhaps a dozen ranches in the surrounding area. Just a few buildings served
many purposes, with the post office including a dance hall. Another building
had a barbershop and saloon, and the community also had a general store. Marquette
was a gregarious Civil War veteran who served as a justice of the peace and
later as coroner. But no social event was complete if he wasn't there to play
the fiddle. Not every community was as close to two rivers as Marquette, and
other farmers were thirsty for reliable irrigation water. Though the Shoshone Dam, later renamed the Buffalo Bill Dam,
is hailed as an engineering marvel, the road through the canyon on the north
side of the river is no less impressive. The road was needed to facilitate
construction of the dam, and it was built mostly with hand tools or relatively
primitive machines.
Before that road was built, the trip to Yellowstone
National Park first followed a road along the South Fork of the Shoshone River,
fording that river and the North Fork about two dozen times before reaching the
park. Before the dam was built, the federal government calculated the value of
the ranches around Marquette using a formula accounting for water rights and
crop yields. For each acre, the government paid $45 for land used to grow
alfalfa, $35 for grain acreage, $20 for unbroken land with water rights, $7.50
for grazing land along the river bottom and $3.50 for grazing land with no
water. Most buildings that could be salvaged were moved, with many becoming
part of the new town site of Cody. Buffalo Bill Cody owned a small 80-acre
tract in Marquette that was separate from his sprawling TE Ranch on the South
Fork. The government paid him $3,900 for the property, or about $86,000 in
today's dollars.
After this touring, the guys were hungry, so we headed to Irma’s
for lunch. We felt like we stepped into the old West at The Irma Hotel. On our
tour, we heard about the romance of an era when Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
try-outs were held on the lots west of the hotel, when buffalo ran amok in
downtown Cody, and when European nobility headquartered at The Irma while on
hunting treks in the area. "Buffalo Bill", Cody, was arguably the
best known American in the world during his lifetime. Having been involved in
many events that shaped the American West, he formed an arena show of the
western experience called Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1883. It toured the
United States and Europe for 30 years.
In 1902, he built an establishment which he called
"just the sweetest hotel that ever was" and named it for his youngest
daughter, Irma. It was built to appeal to visitors from around the world -- as
a staging point for sightseers headed for Yellowstone, big game hunters,
summers tourists, and businessmen investigating the ranching, mining, and other
business opportunities. Buffalo Bill maintained two suites and an office at the
hotel for his personal use. When the Burlington Railroad completed a spur line
into Cody, Buffalo Bill's plan was to have travelers stay at his hotels in the
Rockies on their way to the east gate of Yellowstone National Park. They
included The Irma Hotel in Cody, near the railroad; Wapiti Inn (a day's wagon
ride west); and Pahaska Teepee near the East gate of the Park.
The Irma is listed on the National Register of Historic
Places by the National Park Service in recognition of its contribution to the
cultural foundations of America. The hotel was designed by Alfred Wilderman
Woods, a Lincoln, Nebraska church architect. Certain exterior walls are made of
river rock and locally quarried sandstone from Beck Lake just south of town.
The fireplace is an assemblage of rock, ores, minerals, and fossils from the
Big Horn Basin. The Irma's famous cherrywood bar, a gift from Queen Victoria.
It dates back to the period of construction and is one of the most photographed
features in all of Cody. The original part of the hotel was built for Buffalo
Bill in 1902. The northwest addition was constructed in 1929, and the southwest
addition was added in 1976-1977.
The two Charlies were ready to relax, so Nancy and I headed downtown
to “walk the streets.” The first place we headed was to the Cody Country
Chamber of Commerce on Sheridan Ave. Sheridan Avenue is named after General
Sheridan f Civil War and Indian War fame. Cody was Sheridan’s favorite military
scout and Cody returned the admiration by naming a major street after his
friend. The chamber is co-located with the Art League in a native lodge pole
pine log building that was built in 1927 and was the original Buffalo Bill Cody
Museum. We are going to the new location of the museum later.
Next on our list was the historic Cody Mural and Museum. It
is a historic tale of the migration and settlement of the Big Horn Basin of
Wyoming. We were welcomed by an elder and were given a private powerful glimpse
into the western expansion of Mormon pioneers in the late 1800s. The mural is
an awe-inspiring, one-of-a-kind mural painted by renowned artist Edward T
Grigware.
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| photo credit: LDS |
Grigware became well known for his western art and was an
accomplished mural artist, with pieces housed in churches, museums and other
buildings across the United States. Given his expansive talent and his
friendship with Cody residents and LDS church members Glenn and Olive Nielson
and Lloyd Taggart, it is unsurprising he was asked to create the artwork in the
Cody chapel. Although he painted a number of pieces featuring prominent church
figures and created a mural for the Los Angeles LDS Temple, Edward Grigware was
not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He spent
nearly a full year studying church history to gain a greater understanding of
the history of the Mormon people and the religious tenets of the faith. He
selected the historic scenes for the mural, first painting them in watercolors.
He then began the consuming process of creating the mural, commenting that “a
hand greater than his own” was guiding his brush. The mural was completed and
unveiled to the public in 1951.
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| Photo Credit: LDS |
Stretching high overhead in the rotunda, the work
exemplifies the highest levels of artistic technique while sharing a
remarkable, true-to-life story of faith, hard work and sacrifice. The mural
illustrates the first 120 years of the history of The Church of the Latter-day
Saints in the 36-foot diameter rotunda. The mural is divided into eight equal
sections, the first eight prophets of the church who stand as pillars to
supporting the structure of both the dome and Church. Between the prophets are
scenes Grigware painted beginning with Joseph Smith receiving the golden plates
for the Book of Mormons. The painted linen scenes continue around the rotunda
with the movement of the Church and its members from Palmyra NY, through
Kirtland OH, Nauvoo IL, traversing the Mississippi River, across the plains,
culminating in the Rocky Mountains with the building of the temple in Salt Lake
City.
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| Photo Credit: LDS |
In the museum, we viewed items brought and used by Mormon
pioneers more than 100 years ago as they settled the rugged Wyoming Big Horn
Basin area. They came in 1900 to establish a settlement and build a 30-mile
irrigation canal. It was hard work, but the reward was worth it.
The current home of the Silver Dollar Bar was
built in 1905 for the International Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), the second
story was the Lodge Hall that was used by many organizations for social events.
The first floor was shared by Harding Curio in front and the Post Office in the
back until 1927.
Outside the Sheridan building is a white buffalo
statue, remnants from a past fund raiser. It is kind of symbolic that this
statue is in front of a Native American shop. Since the American buffalo is a
symbol of abundance and manifestation, and the lesson learned by the Lakota
that day is that one does not have to struggle to survive if the right action
is joined by the right prayer. The white buffalo is a sign of hope and an
indication of good times to come. The Sheridan building was built in 1905, the
Shoshone Bank was in this location until 1994. The building was renovated back
to its original brick exterior and added a compatible structure to fill the banks
parking lot. Early photos show the second floor housed a central telephone
exchange.
The Scharf Block building is now home to Annie’s
Old Fashion Soda Saloon. It was built in 1905 by a woman named Scharf, Dr
Bennett had his office upstairs and a jewelry and drug store on the main floor.
The original storefront had a corner or diagonal entrance that faced the center
of the intersection like the one diagonally opposite from it. At one time, all
four buildings on this intersection had diagonal entrances facing the “four corners”
intersection.
This is where Nancy and I stopped for a White Cow and a Black Cow ... they were delicious!
At some point, this building was home
to Siedel Saddelry, as evident by the old time neon sign and the mural on the
side of the building facing Irma’s porch.
The Bradbury building is one of the buildings
that used to have a corner entrance. It was built in 1906 on the NE corner of
the “four corners” intersection. It was the original location of the New York
Store, a haberdashery shop selling ready-made men’s clothing. Named after Dr
Bradbury, the upstairs housed his offices and living quarters. Dr Bradbury
served as a government doctor at the time of the construction of the Shoshone
Dam.
The Cody Theater was constructed in 1936 by Jim
Corder. The theater took two years to build and originally contained 700 seats.
The theater opened in 1938 after having been in two other locations. This
building is a good example of the Art Deco period in American architecture. The
mirror black tiles and bright colors used in the marquee are details of the Art
Deco style.
I loved the stained glass masks at the window.
Both these buildings were constructed separately
around 1904 and display the same cornice design that extends across both
buildings. The cornice material is actually pressed metal that was made to look
like stone.
The last place we stopped was the Christ Episcopal Church,
aka the “Poker Church.” It was built by money won in a lively poker game held
at Purcell’s Saloon in 1900. In 1898,
Anna Peake and her husband arrived in Cody, where he was to become the editor
of the Cody Enterprise newspaper. Anna
stirred up what other few women there were in the budding 2-year-old town to
make civic improvements, one of which was to build some sort of church. Being an Episcopalian, Anna wrote to the
nearest Bishop in the area, Bishop Funston of Idaho. Learning that there were souls yearning for
enlightenment in far off, rugged Wyoming, he made the trip by horse, stage, and
train to reach Cody. He held a service
in the first rock school house erected that year. He said he would then find someone willing to
come to serve Christ in this windy, forsaken spot. It was not easy, there were
so few people in the town, most of whom were men, more interested in visiting
the saloons that lined the short main street than going to church. Anna persevered; she and several other women
“nagged” their spouses about the need.
Thus, the stage was set for the Purcell Saloon poker game.
Buffalo Bill, George T. Beck (both town founders), as well
as several ranchers and hangers-on at the saloon, were having their usual poker
game one evening. The pot grew large and
Buffalo Bill, knowing that he should be doing something toward a church in the
town (he had heard enough about that), suggested that, since it was such a
large pot, the winner should donate the money to a church of his choice. George Beck won, and to placate his wife, he
quickly designated the money to go toward the Episcopal Church. With bake sales, and dinners, the ladies
managed to make up the difference and by late 1901 the church, being built to
specifications for mission churches, was underway on the corner of Rumsey and
11th Street. Rev. Jennings was here to
oversee the building. The Methodist
Episcopal was also building at the other end of town, and the race was on to see
who could have the first service. If
rumors handed down are true, the Episcopal Church won, by only a few days.
During prohibition, when other churches were serving grape
juice instead of wine for the Holy Eucharist, Christ Church held tough. Some of the parishioners and the priest
brewed their own fermented wine. In 1965 a new larger church was built and the
Poker church was moved to its present location to become the chapel. They hold
services in the poker church from June until September. Weddings and baptisms are performed there
throughout the year.
When in Cody, you have to see the Cody Gunfighters' show, at
least once! But don’t wait until Sunday … there is no gun shooting allowed on
Sundays! The Wild Bunch performs the free Old West melodrama next to the Irma
Hotel all summer long. The Wild Bunch is named after the infamous bunch of
bandits that include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They have several
different 30-minute shows that rotate throughout the summer, but they all end
in a blaze of gunfire.
The gunfighter programs feature actors dressed in real and
fictional heroes and desperados. Depicted are a variety of Old West characters
such as the Sundance Kid, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, Annie Oakley and Buffalo
Bill. The program includes some audience participation too!
After the gunfight, we enjoyed a drink on the porch where
Buffalo Bill and Irma sat. We listened to the music, had "porch snacks",
talked and just watched the sites of Cody.
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