Cody, Wyoming is a destination for not only the gateway to Yellowstone National Park, but also to a curated version of the Old West, a tradition which was started by showman Buffalo Bill Cody himself at the turn of the last century and has continued today. If you are looking for things to do in Cody, WY this summer start with its association with the Old West. Cody boasts a Nite Rodeo from June through August every night of the summer, and an exceptionally impressive July Fourth weekend too. Featuring three days of parades, celebrity Grand Marshalls, fireworks displays, and an outside arts festival.
Most of what can be written about the true western experience has already been said many times over. The brick false front buildings that line Sheridan St. still provide the backdrop for tourists looking for shadows of the Old West and Buffalo Bill’s exaggerated vision of a time that was already legend by the time the towns namesake was cold in the ground.
A Wild West Experience
You can see echoes of this in other towns such as Tombstone, or Deadwood, or other places which have held onto their wild west reputations. Evoking the image of weather hardened lawmen and outlaws starting each other down on a patch of dirt road, about to send each other into history with a bullet. The most notorious of these gunfights is often reenacted for droves of tourists several times a day. It’s a lot of fun and good for business. Locals can set their clocks by the sound of the blanks going off.
I set out on my trip to Cody looking for an America just emerging from over a year of pandemic lockdowns. I couldn’t think of a better place with nightly rodeos, open spaces, and parades that would capture at least what people wanted their post-lockdown summer to look like. With Yellowstone National Park just beyond the mountains to the west and a state which still has one foot firmly in the last century, Cody has been a go to destination for people who wanted to get away from the congestion of the city.
The Nite Rodeo
A popular attraction and possibly the event that has earned the town the undisputed title of Rodeo Capital of the World. Every night between June and through August, the rodeo runs with competitors riding bulls, broncs, barrel racing, roping steers, and all points in between. July Fourth weekend is the biggest event of the summer and you have a front row seat to the chutes if you sit in the Buzzards Roost. You can tell when the rodeo is about to begin by the long line of cars that back up all he way down Sheridan St. as people wait to get in. Cowboys with their wide-brimmed Stetsons and buckle bunnies in their sprayed on sparkly jeans are common sights. The locals tend to avoid it unless they know someone competing, and it’s hard to get near the place on July 4th weekend.
Live Music All Around Town
Cody has a big live music culture. On just about any given night during the week one of several venues will feature live bands. This really never even slowed down during the pandemic. It isn’t just county music either. And it happens pretty much the whole year round. For people starved of their live music fix, it has still been happening here. Get out and support a local performer while enjoying a cold beer. From the infamous Hotel Irma to the local watering hole the Silver Dollar Bar and several other places in between, you can get your drink and your live music on and close the place down satisfied.
The Buffalo Bill Center of the West
The site of the worlds largest collection of firearms is a must-see for firearms enthusiasts and students of history alike. What you can typically only see in books, these guns, rifles, pistols, and other firearms are on full display in pull-out cases along with descriptions and dates. The Museum also depicts the history of the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show and follows its path of a small traveling show which brought the wild west to life to the industry it would later become. There’s a lot to see in this museum, so plan a few hours of your day.
Old Trail Town
Old Trail Town is a collection of authentic buildings which have been collected and assembled as a main street of an old west townsite. Two rows of clapboard buildings, log cabins, and boardwalks flank a row of weathered buggies and wagons. A graveyard featuring the final resting place of local personalities such as Jeremiah “Liver Eating” Johnson, and local outlaws of the 19th Century give an idea of the types of characters who called the area home over a hundred years ago. You can walk the boardwalk at your own pace and take in the sights and artifacts at your own pace. The stark beauty of the area surrounds the site and you get to experience just how isolated a town was on the frontier if you let your mind wander.
Cody, Wyoming Food Culture
Travel isn’t just for the spectacle of sights and events. Which is why Cody is a feast for your other senses. Especially if you love to travel by your stomach. You won’t find a Starbucks outside of the grocery store, for good reason. Throughout town are drive through coffee spots like Rawhide that put the big companies to shame, staffed by friendly locals who know their way around an espresso machine.
Check out El Vaquero for authentic Mexican food with home-made tortillas and some of the best you will find in Wyoming. I’ve eaten just about everywhere from Santa Fe, NM to Los Angeles, CA and this place has them beat.
Cody is full of bars with full menus that let you kick back with a cold adult beverage and savor some excellent local fare. The chain restaurants cannot compete with Pat O’Hara’s, an Irish pub with indoor and outdoor seating, a live music venue, a list of local, domestic, and imported beers, and a menu that after three visits I couldn’t decide what I loved more. Everything here is good!
Heart Mountain Interpretive Center
Heart Mountain Interpretive Center is the site of one of ten internment camps set up by the U.S. Government for Japanese Americans during WWII. With only a few of the original buildings remaining, it is hard to envision how it had been home to 14,000 Japanese Americans from 1942-1945. The majority of the site has been reclaimed by the land as either agricultural land or prairie. The site is recognizable from the highway by the sole remaining smoke stack of what was once the camp hospital.
The interpretive center offers a comprehensive view of the social climate at the time, including newspaper articles, government correspondence, and even popular anti-Japanese propaganda from the time. A short film illustrates what life was like for those who had been relocated to the camp, which is an eerie reflection of what our enemies during the war were doing to their out citizens as well. The site is a sobering look at what popular opinion and what governments do for “national security” are capable of doing and how it affected the lives of over 144,000 Japanese Americans just a few generations ago.
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