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Old Trail Town Museum in Cody, Wyoming
Man Street, Old Trail Town in Cody, Wyoming
Old Trail Town is a collection of buildings built by the early pioneers to the area around Cody during the late 1800s, get more information here: http://www.oldtrailtown.org/. To create the museum, they were dismantled from their old locations and brought here and reassembled piece by piece at the exact location that Buffalo Bill founded the town of Cody. Just the empty buildings wouldn’t be very interesting, so many of them are also filled with antiques from the area and time period. Whenever possible, there are photos of the actual owners of the buildings. For example, they have Curley’s cabin, who was Custer’s head Indian Scout and who survived the battle of Little Big Horn. But they have much more than just the building, inside are many photos of him and even Custer and antiques from the time period. Together, you get a very good feel for how people were actually living at the time.
The cabin Curley lived in after the end of the Indian Wars.
The grave of the real “Jeremiah Johnson”, mountain man.
This cabin was used as a museum and on its walls are the obituaries of all the people buried in the graveyard. It also includes newspaper articles from their time and also new ones from when their bodies were exhumed and moved to Old Trail Town. There are personal articles and several letters written by the people in the graves.
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Butch Cassidy spent a lot of time in this part of Wyoming and committed numerous crimes in the area. He is known to have used this cabin as a hideout.
The cabin Butch Cassidy and his gang hid out in. All these building give you a real sense of respect for the durability of log buildings! Nearly all of them were built 120 years ago, or even more.
One of the many authentic photos and items from Butch Cassidy’s cabin.
A real saloon from the late 1800s Wyoming, moved piece-by-piece to Old Trail Town. Yes, it has swinging doors with real bullet holes.
Rather than tell you all about the buildings that are there, I think pictures tell the story much better than I can, so I’ll let the photos tell the story.
The Homestead cabin left side.
The Homestead Cabin, right side.
An authentic one-room school house from 1884.
All the pieces in the school are authentic to the time period.
Information about the cabin the school was in.
This is an authentic “chuck wagon” actually used on cattle drives in the 1890s. The same heart that longed for adventure and travel that compelled them to hit the trail still beats in the readers of this blog!
The back end of the chuck wagon. I can see many similarities between this and a vandweller! Can’t you?
“…and being transported back in time to an era I regret missing. I’ve always thought I was born at the wrong time! Highly recommended!” Bob, I understand your feelings, often times I feel the same way about events that took place long in the past, but remember, there were no vans, no solar panels, no fridges or endless breeze then, thus you could not have a nice & comfy nomadic life then, so ‘ visit the past & enjoy the present ‘ ! Have wonderful time U & Cody boy.
My regards, Lucy.
Bob, I just thought that U could still be a nomad during those olden times, U could ride a wagon pulled by horses just like a gypsy, couldn’t U ?? LOL.
Lucy.
you can still be a nomad today. we get at least 1 horse powered wagon a year here. indiana. eat fish and critters. bath in creeks. what a life!
we have people that live in tents here all year. -20f sometimes. a lot more in summer.
the life of riley.
outta ice cream. raz
Hi Raz! Where is “here” for you?
Lucy, I could even ride the horse!
Bob
Good point Lucy, it would not be nearly as comfortble as it is now.
Bob
not to mention the health care, dental care, and hygiene of the day… yikes!
Nice to visit though.
Hi Bob! Yes, I too have often felt like I was born about 150 years too late! I feel a strong pull toward these pictures & places. Jeremiah Johnson is one of my all time favorite movies! Hoping someday soon I will be traveling the west in my van; seeing all these places. Thanks Bob!
You’re very welcome Linda! Your time will come!
Bob
Cody looks very much like a stop I need to make one of these days. I have a strong interest in the Native Americans and the mountain men. As with many vandwellers, the nomadic mountain men intended to escape, not extend, what we call civilization.
Very good point Calvin. I think they would be horrified to know they contributed to the destruction of the land they loved by opening the way to so many others.
Bob
Great post on the town, Bob. Cody, Wyoming has been moved up on my list of places to see.
Mark
Glad you liked it Mark, you’ll be glad you visited Cody!
Bob
We had those same school desks in the 1950s. Did they really last that long?
We had those into the 1970s.
Things were built to last back in the day
Linda, you can’t beat the oldest, simplest things! they stand the test of time.
Bob
Hi Bob,
Will have to add that to my list of places to check out. Really enjoying looking at the pictures.
Tina
I’m very glad to give you some ideas Tina!
Bob
Those photos make my heart swell…
I also feel an affinity for those times.
I love to explore ghost towns and old cemeteries,
where there are often old trees, interesting plants
and sometimes stories of the people who lived there.
Just beautiful, thank you Bob.
You’re very welcome, green!
Bob
I have always thought it would be neat to recreate a town like this and get enough people to live in it to create an old village of sorts..get back to simpler times. Wish it was easy to do so!
Of course beautiful pictures and love the look of all the buildings. Would love to see it in person!
I visited Colonial Williamsburg some years ago which is exactly what you describe but at the time of the American Revolution. I tremendously enjoyed it!!!
You might look into Mountain Man Rendezvous reenactments, they can be very realistic.
Bob