DON'T READ THIS; IT'S BORING!: Cody Wyoming

Showing posts with label Cody Wyoming. Show all posts

Thursday, November 30, 2023

The Great Road Trip 2017.....Part Twenty One/Day Seventeen

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Fourteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Fifteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Sixteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Seventeen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Eighteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Nineteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Twenty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

So we left off with the Buffalo Bill Cody exhibit last time.

Back out into the common area was a Kentucky Flintlock .45 Rifle.

My 7 x Great Grandfather, Robert Baker, and his brothers were the developers of the predecessors of this muzzle loading long rifle that was the stock and trade in the frontier of America from the time of the American Revolution onward.

They were awarded a patent from King William to produce these firearms outside of Philadelphia and once the Revolution happened they turned to producing weapons for the rebelling colonists. I am related to these folks through my maternal Great Grandmother, Lucy Baker.

Then Hubs and I both went into the extensive Native American exhibit.

Lots of examples of pottery and items of daily life of the Plains Indians.

A teepee set up like the one we stayed in on the trip West.....

A tanned hide with pictoral detailing, probably a ceremonial cape.

Plains Indians were a nomadic peoples, following the food supply to hunt.

A beautiful example of a ceremonial chief's headdress

More tools made from metals available.....

A buffalo headdress fir ceremonial and spiritual occasions. Only elite males of the tribe wore these.

Various weapons used by Plains Indians. Once they had contact with and traded with the English the "shooting sticks" became a popular item.

A War Lodge. When traveling through enemy territory these were temporary shelters for Plains Indians. Being sticks they didn't draw attention to whom might be inside.

Some examples of weaving and an early photo of a native family wearing hand woven garments.

A bone breastplate or chest armor was a popular ornamentation worn by warriors. They were made of hair pipe bones(from buffalo or birds), attached around the neck with leather thongs and were often decorated with beading. I bet this was a powerful visual being worn by a warrior(and offered some protection to the chest area).

A bead embellished handmade horse saddle blanket.

A Plains Indian on a horse pulling a litter of goods and an infant strapped to the back in cradle.

A decorative spear.

An example of pictography, an animal(buffalo?)carved into a rock.

If you ever read "The Revenant", you know this is a type of boat described in the book. It's a frame in a round basket shape. I've seen it referred to as a piroque, which is a type of Cajun boat still used in Louisiana today. It's similar to the bamboo constructed round boats still made and used in Vietnam.

An elaborate fur, bone or claw? and beaded neck piece. That thing must weigh a ton!

More decorated lances.

Another decorate hide.

A long woven tapestry decorate with feathers, dye and eagle motifs.

More examples of decorative, wearable arts.....

More Native decorative arts.....

A colored depiction of a buffalo hunt made on a tanned hide....

Then the exhibit got into the sad stuff......

Native children removed from their homes and sent away to schools to become "civilized"......

We all know these many years later how this story ends.....so depressing.

Sure gives creedence to the old saying, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." 8-(

We ducked into their gift shop on the way out.

Other than buying a couple of pencils we didn't bring anything else home as it was like the Archway place in Nebraska and way overpriced.

After spending most of the day at this museum we hit the road heading East again.

The next installment when I get around to it. ;-)

Sluggy

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

The Great Road Trip 2017....Part Twenty/Day Seventeen

Part Fourteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Fifteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Sixteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Seventeen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Eighteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Nineteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

We had a hearty motel provided breakfast the next morning since we didn't have dinner the night before. I don't drink coffee so I had some kind of juice, scrambled eggs, a huge sausage patty and a little corned beef hash. The hash was salty as heck so I didn't salt the eggs(just peppered them)and ate a hunk of each in every fork full to spread the salt out. Do the best you can with what ya got. ;-)

The common area(where breakfast was served)at this motel was pretty grand and decked out in taxidermy and bear pelts.....

"Eat, Sleep and Fish"(or Hunt)seems to be the motto everywhere we go out here. lol

More animal heads and a fly rod.

After checking out we hit the gas station next door to fill the car's tank. I wandered around inside the attached convenience store.......

Cute sign.

And there was a cardboard sign on the side of this building letting you know which direction was which on the interstate this gas station was adjacent to.

There were a lot of t-shirts with firearms displayed on them here for sale. You know you are in the "wild west". I opted to buy a souvenir Montana coffee mug instead to tote home.

We drove East on I-90 onto we hit Columbus MT

Then it was local roads through Joliet, Fromberg, Bridger and down into

Wyoming.

I had to take a photo of this drive-thru coffee spot along the way. You'll notice it's called "Revenant Coffee". I believe it was named after the book from 2002 and the film starring Leonardo DiCaprio that came out in 2015. I had read the book by Michael Punke earlier that year and I highly recommend it!

A cattle sighting along the highway.........

The Two Bear Tavern and Eatery in Fromberg....in keeping with the Revenant movie theme.....

And changing highways to get to Bridger....

And Welcome to Bridger...

Truly a one light town, Bridger. And it's not even a full 3 colors traffic light. lol

A crowd of used appliances along the road outside of Bridger?

And back out into the wilderness.......

A strange thing being towed by someone by us on the highway. Is this a log splitter, a generator or what? I couldn't figure it out.

About lunch time we came to this place. I immediately thought of Kim when I saw this sign. *snort*

So we made a pitstop at the Blue Rooster Cafe, an unassuming little eatery, somewhere between Bridger and the Wyoming state line.

Not being very hungry as it was early for lunch after that breakfast we had at the motel, we just got a drink and a slice of pie each. Can't recall what pie I had but I do remember it wasn't that great. Hubs liked his cherry pie which was homemade.

And it was back onto Highway 72 and more of those lovely views of mountains.....

Another one of those log ranch entrance gates/structures........

And then we crossed the border into Wyoming(not our first time though).

The highway changed to 120 in Wyoming but the scenery was similar to Montana.

And we knew we were getting close to our destination for the day when we saw this billboard.........

And then this one, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the death of Buffalo Bill Cody, whom the town is named for. That's all I can figure it means since the town of Cody was founded well before 1917.

We passed this historic building in town that housed "the Silver Dollar Bar"....

Then the historic Irma Hotel, named for William F. Cody's youngest daughter, Irma Louise Cody. I wish we had stopped into the bar inside since made of cherry wood and it was bestowed to Buffalo Bill for the hotel by Queen Victoria(Buffalo Bill took his Wild West Show to England and Scotland and they performed for the Queen).

And then we spied non combustible locomotion on the roadway. ;-)

And of course lots of stores selling guns and accessories and advertising a gunsmith. Take note of the saddle sitting under the flag too.

And we had arrived finally at Buffalo Bill's Center of the West Museum in Cody WY.

Some native teepees on the grounds outside the building.

A howling wolf statue too.....

Hubs posing with a bronze statue of a native warrior looking skyward.

Hubs again posing with the 100 years banner on the building.....

Me inside the entrance posing with a grizzly.

The Museum had various rooms and themed exhibits in each area. I hit the William Cody historical rooms while Hubs wandered into the native fowls of the area rooms.

This was the holographic projection of Buffalo Bill as you entered the exhibits of his life.

It's too bad that you could barely hear what he said as it was in a crowded, noisy public area at the front of the museum.

A different location was called for.....

Look! Another sheep wagon sighting.....

When Queen Victoria and Prince Philip came to the US in 1913, Buffalo Bill took the Prince out big game hunting at Camp Monaco in Wyoming, on a fork of the Shoshone River. This is the trunk of a tree that was witness to that adventure. It was said to have been the tallest tree in the forest there.

Here is a Wheel of Fortune, using in the Wild West Show. Maybe there was gambling involved. lol

Here is a gilded beer stein that belonged to William Cody. It is engraved "To General Cody from Peck's Bad Boy". Info on Peck's Bad Boy HERE. It seems William Cody was a rule-breaker who lived outside the bounds of the law at times so someone dedicated this stein to that reputation.

A print of cowboys at chow time.......

Me and the stagecoach.

This piece of jewelry was lovely. It's a priceless Gold and Diamond Fob and was given to Buffalo Bill in 1892 by Queen Victoria.

A reproduction of a tent camp the likes of which William Cody may have inhabited when out hunting.

A lithograph of painted panels commemorating Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as it was performed in London for the Royal Family in 1887.

Buffalo Bill has a big proponent of women's rights. He hired many female workers in his Wild West Show back when women were expected to marry and stay to have children, run the home and serve her husband. No wonder that Wyoming was the first state in the USA that included women's suffrage in it's agenda and gave women the right to vote in 1917. Coincidently, this was the same year Buffalo Bill died.