Buffalo BIll Center of the West and Dam

The biggest draw in Cody, besides the nightly rodeo and its proximity to Yellowstone National Park, is the Buffalo Bill Center of the West museum.  We spent over 3 hours in this building and still didn’t see it all.

One two story wing was the natural history of the land that Bill Cody called home.  There were some amazing dioramas of animals in their natural habitat, the geology of the area and the lives of the American Indians who lived here before the white man pushed them out.  

One wing was the life and times of Buffalo Bill Cody, his relationships with the Indians, his Wild West Show staring Annie Oakley, his family and his connections to and the establishment of the town of Cody.  

There were two Wild West art galleries but we only made it through one of these and then the world’s largest collection of guns.  Display after display, drawer after drawer, room after room of nothing but guns.  What a collection!

Since we had the time we decided to drive the short distance to the Historic Buffalo Bill Dam. Col. Cody wanted to help the ranchers and farmers use the water from the Shoshone River to irrigate their lands but they needed a storage reservoir.  Long story short, after starting the project in 1903 the dam was completed in 1910.  At that time it was the highest dam in the world at 325 feet.  It was also one of the first high concrete arch dams.  The base of the dam is 70 wide but the top is 200 feet wide.  Another 25 feet was added to the top of the dam in 1993. Along with irrational the dam provides hydroelectric power and provides some flood control for downstream communities as well as drinking water.