Pacific to Atlantic: Wild Wild West

The Buffalo Bill Historic Center in Cody, WY has a tag-line We are the West, and it is very appropriate. BBHC is comprised of six museums each dedicated to preserving and presenting different aspects related to the Wild West.

Two of these museums have an audio tour arranged with PDAs. Took this very informative and entertaining audio tour and spent time in the two museums: Cody Firearms Museum and Whitney Gallery of Western Art.

Initially we had penned in two hours for the entire museum and were planning to drive over to Thermopolis,WY by nightfall. After an hour spent being very absorbed in the Firearms Museum, those plans went out of the window and we decided to stay over in Cody to spend more time at the Museum.

The Firearms Museum depicts the history of Firearms from the early 1600s to the modern day, and elaborates their role in the history of the West and that of US as well, debunking many Hollywood-inspired western myths like "Everyone in those times carried guns" and "Lawlessness, Bounty-hunting, duels, etc were the order of the day".

One thing I found very interesting was that the club of big game hunters - the Boone and Crockett club - was first hand witness to the destruction of natural wilderness resources and they played a key role in conserving these resources. One of the members of this club who was an avid hunter went on to become the President of the US and is currently hailed as the biggest contributor to the preserving of the natural resources of the country. President Theodore Roosevelt's name keeps coming up everywhere we go these days!

Now I also know how the expression "lock, stock & barrel" gained coinage and the meaning of the terms "lock", "stock" and "barrel".

The Whitney Gallery of Western Art has an extra-ordinary collection of paintings, sketches and sculptures connected to the West. The landscape and history of this region inspires even the most common of men, so it is no wonder that many artists drew inspiration here and created their masterpieces. Among the ones that particularly attracted me were the two huge paintings by the artist Harry Jackson placed opposite to each other. The first one is named "The Stampede" and depicts buffaloes stampeding across a river with a few cowboys in the middle. One of the cowboys has fallen off his horse and is being dragged along by his horse as his leg is struck in the stirrup. The second picture is the depiction of the aftermath of the stampede and is titled "Range burial" showing the burial of the cowboy who lost his life in the stampede.

This picture - titled "Waiting for the Chinook" or alternatively as "The last of the 5000" has an interesting story; it was supposedly used by the painter - Charles M. Russell - to answer a query from a cattle owner about how the cattle were doing. Full story on this page on Charlie Russell's website. Incidentally, a Chinook is a wind which will make the snow vanish and allow cattle to feed on the grass below.

It didn't surprise me that an entire section was dedicated to the battle at Little Bighorn; the section indeed being named "The battle with many names". The native American name for the battle was "The Battle of Greasy Grass"; the Indians referring to Little Bighorn river as Greasy Grass. Many of the paintings focus mainly on Custer portraying him as a valiant hero cornered by the Native American warriors, while a few of them give a balanced view of the war from both sides.

Went to see the daily organized Rodeo show in the evening; now I know what is done in a Rodeo show, and can tick off the "See a Rodeo" item on my to-do list :-) A rodeos is a good place to spend some time drinking beer, eating pop-corn, and watch a few cowboys and cowgirls tangle themselves with cows, calves and horses. The comedian in the show tried to make people laugh by making funny comments at people from different states [West Virginia : You folks finally seem to have got electricity!, etc. ]