Buffalo Bill

After descending the south end of the Beartooth Highway, we caught the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, running east toward Cody, WY. It follows the Clark's Ford River, named for our intrepid explorer, William Clark. When Lewis and Clark returned from the Pacific, they divided into two parties in SW Montana. The Lewis party went north to the Marias River and followed it down; the Clark party went east to the Yellowstone River and followed it to its confluence with the Missouri where the two parties met and continued on down the Missouri to enduring fame. Clark only saw this fork when it entered the Yellowstone, but he still got the honor of having the river named for him.

Some pictures:

Along the way the road crosses a deep, narrow canyon via the Sunlight Creek Bridge, shown here from an internet picture.

Here's the view looking down from the bridge.

We got to Cody for a late lunch at the Irma Hotel, Buffalo Bill's favorite, then spent the rest of the afternoon at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. As they say, it's five museums under one roof. Lots of great exhibits and information. We spent three hours there and could have easily spent more.

From the banner behind Bill, you can see that the Center, serendipitously for us L&C fans, had an ongoing L&C special exhibit. The Lewis and Clark party made sketches along the way, but the expedition had no professional artist along to capture the scenes and events. Charles Fritz is a Montana artist who has tried to fill that void and his paintings are now on display. They're great.

The banner is from a painting depicting Decision Point where they had to decide between the Marias and Missouri Rivers. L&C look pretty dapper, compared to what they probably really looked like after a winter in North Dakota and then pushing on up the river in a Montana summer. The exhibit has 100 expedition scenes. You can't take pictures, but you can buy a book. I'd like to get a print of the Beaver Head Rock scene, but it doesn't appear to be available yet.

You can take pictures in much of the rest of the Center, though. There are a lot of traditional Russell, Remington, Bierstadt, ... western art pieces. For contrast, there are some modern paintings that got my attention. Here are two famous Bills: Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill.

A dramatic statue of Sacagawea in the sculpture garden:

There's all sorts of Buffalo Bill memorabilia.

Even his boyhood house has been moved here from Iowa.

There is a diplay of, Susie's hero, Annie Oakley, a star of the Wild West Show, who Susie played (way) off-Broadway.

The Buffalo Bill story is a mix of fact and legend, but it's clear that he was quite accomplished in many areas -- soldier, scout, hunter, showman. For one thing, he was a Medal of Honor winner. The Wikipedia article says he won the award as a scout for the infantry and the award was revoked, then reinstated. Must be an interesting story there. This museum in his honor does a fine job in telling the story of the west and his role in it. I like the mix of art and historical displays and info.

From Cody, it's about a one-hour drive back to Red Lodge. Couldn't turn down one more of those sky-mountain-green grass scenes we keep coming across. Hope you dear Readers are not tired of them. Anybody?

Cheers,

Susie and Rob