Old Trail Town and More

Just like that, summer arrived. The high temperature yesterday was 79, with clear skies and calm winds. What a perfect day for sightseeing. There are several more local attractions that we want to see but because it was such a nice day we wanted to at least start out with an outdoor attraction. After stopping at the Rodeo Central shop in town to buy our passes for the Nitely Rodeos and our tickets for the first day of the Cody Stampede for July 1, we headed to the Old Trail Town, just outside town on the west side:


This is a collection of 26 cabins that were placed - in 1967 - on the site that Buffalo Bill had chosen for the first town site of "Cody City" in 1895. Below are pictures of the street with the cabins on each side and many wagons in between:



There were several cabins that were especially noteworthy. One example is the Hole in the Wall cabin:

Then there was the Shell Store, built in Shell, WY., in 1892, and was typical of the stores in the old west:

And also the Rivers Saloon, built at the mouth of the Wood River, west of the present Meeteetse, WY:

There were bullet holes in the door and door frame that aren't visible here, but you get the idea. There were many other cabins of homesteaders, trappers, a school, carpenter shop, livery stable and even the cabin of "Curley", one of Custer's Crow Indian scouts that escaped the massacre at Little Big Horn in June, 1884. There were several grave sites at the end of this town of other famous "locals" of the time. One that was especially interesting to us was the grave site of Jeremiah Johnson, the famous person of the movie with the same title. Robert Redford played the role of Jeremiah Johnson in the movie and his remains were relocated to this site in 1974. Below are shots of his grave site and of the reburial ceremony in 1974, at which Robert Redford was one of the pallbearers:

Finally, at the end of the cabins, there was the largest collection of elk antlers I've ever seen in one place:

After leaving the Old Trail Town, we went a little further down the highway to Tecumseh's Miniature Village & Museum:

This was a very unique display of the old west in miniature and also contained huge displays of old Indian artifacts:

All in all, it was an exciting and educational day.

It's back to work today - bummer. Josie will do laundry this morning and then we get ready to start work again at 3 PM...