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Show The West's Best Kept Secret 2 their community, the Cody, Wyoming townspeople decided to build a museum containing personal and historic memorabilia of this extraordinary man. Among Buffalo Bill's admirers was Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who in 1923 created a 12-foot tall statue of "Buffalo Bill Cody The Scout." It became the largest bronze equestrian statue in the world. This figure, along with ^0 acres now occupied by the Center, was donated to Cody citizens by Mrs. Whitney a year later as a shrine to Buffalo Bill and the "western way of life." Today's Whitney Gallery of Western Art, which opened in 1959, is one of the Center's three segments. Renting personal cassette recorders for $1.50, one can take a guided tour lasting from one to three hours, depending on individual preference. "How Kola," painted by Charles Schreyvogel in 1901, tells a personal story at the Battle of Rosebud. A galloping cavalryman is about to fire on an Indian whose horse has fallen. But hearing the Indian shout "How Kola," meaning "Stop, Friend," the soldier withholds his fire, recalling the face of a man who saved him from freezing several years earlier. "Waiting for a Chinook," a watercolor of a starving steer in winter, became a turning point in the career of Charles M. Russell. First sketched as a postcard entitled "Last of 5000," he mailed it to his cattle boss to emphasize the plight of their cattle. Adding personal sketches to his letters became a trademark; these are displayed with his sculptures and oils in the north wing. The Buffalo Bill Museum fills the south wing. Originating in a log cabin across the street in 1927, the museum contains personal articles from Buffalo Bill and performers in his Wild West Show. Besides his guns and (more) |
