The Buffalo Bill Center of the West, in Cody, Wyoming 2022

Lately I have been getting behind on our blog. The excuse this time is that we are in the middle of our show season. We planned a mini vacation where we showed and sold our jewelry during the Alpine Mountain Show. And two days later traveled to Cody, Wyoming for the Fourth of July celebration and another showing.

In Cody it was impossible to get into a campground and so we planned ahead and made reservations at Buffalo Bill State Park. To get there we were able to drive through Yellowstone National Park and across Sylvan Pass. As soon as we drove into Yellowstone, I had to smile as we are so lucky to be able to live near and travel through such a beautiful park, (the picture is of the Thorofare, the most remote spot in the lower forty-eight states). The bear were all hiding but we did get to see elk, buffalo, and tourists getting way to close to the massive animals, (the current score is buffalo three and idiots zero as people continue to get too close). Arriving at the state park we were able to set up and had stunning views of the surrounding mountains.

We had arrived two days early and decided to spend the extra time visiting the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum, (actually five museums in a connected building). The museum had completely changed the Firearms Museum and had a new exhibit celebrating Yellowstone’s one-hundred-and-fifty-year anniversary!

Fifty years ago, I worked for a custom Gunstock maker, (Anton Custom Gunstocks). There I learned to inlay rosewood and ebony into shotgun stocks, apply the finish to the wood stocks, and to hand checker the stocks grips. I also got to examine some of the finest guns produced. All my work had to be top notch and it influenced me later in our lapidary and jewelry making business. Entering the firearms collection museum, we saw that new showcases had greatly increased the showcasing of the Museums collection. The Museum has over seven thousand guns and the new exhibits allowed them to show a larger part of their pieces. They even had interactive displays in which you could try shooting a pistol and even a World War one Machine gun.

There were so many exhibits that I had a hard time picking a favorite but one of them was a Purdey shotgun with incredible gold and platinum inlays. Another was a dueling pistol from the eighteenth century.

The museum had an area where a display told of the misuse of guns and also talked about when guns had been used for self-defense. Taking no position, the display allowed you to write comments, both pro and con. They were then posted for all to see.

I was pleased to se how the Museum handled the modern controversy.

Our next top was at the Yellowstone exhibit where we enjoyed early art works

, exhibits of native American artwork

, transportation methods, and wildlife displays

. The museum ended where the Draper Museum of Natural history began and there a team was learning how to assemble a grizzly bear skeleton.

We told them of our non-commercial travel blog, answered our questions and even let us hold the skull and front paw of the specimen.

We also enjoyed the Golden Eagle displays, and the display of Doctor David Love, filed Geology Field Work and Equipment. Almost fifty years ago, I did my Geology Field work Class at Iowa State University, where I spent two months mapping and studying the Geomorphic and the Structural Geology of Wyoming, (the field camo housing were barracks from the Japenese-American World War Two detention center at Heart Mountian, Wyoming.

I was told that Dr Love had located a gold vein near Yellowstone National Park and that it was incredibly valuable.

He was reported to have said that he promised to never tell anyone the location as the mining there would forever damage the nearby National Park, (it was later discovered but an agreement was reached where it would never be developed).

Leaving the Museum, we stopped at a live exhibit where a cowboy chef was preparing biscuits, cowboy coffee, and beans over an open fire. He served us after he warned us that the beans would have the same effect shown in the movie, Blazing Saddles, (it did). The biscuits and coffee were also excellent! It was a great end to our museum visit. If you haven’t yet visited the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum, be sure to include it in your Yellowstone travel plans. We hope to return next year and visit the other three parts of the Museum. Clear skies