The Buffalo Bill Center of the West: Five Museums Under One Roof in Cody, Wyoming
Published
The single most substantial thing in Cody is neither the rodeo nor the canyon. It is a museum complex in the middle of town that consistently surprises people who expected a small local collection: the Buffalo Bill Center of the West holds five separate museums under one roof.
The five museums
The Buffalo Bill Museum deals with William F. Cody himself: army scout, showman, and promoter of the town that carries his name. It treats him as a historical figure and as a constructed public image, which is more interesting than a straightforward tribute would be.
The Plains Indian Museum covers the peoples of the northern plains: material culture, art and history, presented as a serious collection in its own right and not as background to the Buffalo Bill story.
The Whitney Western Art Museum holds painting and sculpture of the American West, including work by artists who traveled the country the museum sits in.
The Cody Firearms Museum is one of the most comprehensive collections of American firearms anywhere. It is a technical and industrial collection as much as a martial one, and it is the museum most often mentioned by visitors who did not expect to be interested.
The Draper Natural History Museum covers the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem: geology, wildlife and the natural systems of the country immediately west of the door.
How long it takes
The most common mistake is an hour. Five museums cannot be seen in an hour, and one of them cannot be seen properly in one either.
Half a day is the working minimum, and visitors with an interest in any single collection regularly spend a full day. If time is tight, the sensible approach is to choose two of the five deliberately instead of walking quickly through all five, which produces very little.
Where the collection came from
The institution is older than most of the town’s other attractions and predates the building it occupies by decades. It began in 1917, the year Cody died, as the Buffalo Bill Memorial Association, a memorial project that kept acquiring until it had outgrown being one. What stands now covers something over seven acres and holds more than fifty thousand objects, with a research library alongside the galleries.
It has also been a Smithsonian Affiliate since 2008, the first museum complex in Wyoming to hold that status, which is a reasonable shorthand for the difference between this and a regional collection. The exhibits are built to a standard that assumes you might have come a long way.
Why it matters to a Cody itinerary
Everything else in this guide depends on weather and daylight. The drives west and north are the core of a visit and both are pointless in low cloud; the rodeo is an evening event outdoors.
The Center of the West is the fixed point that does not care. It is why a wet day in Cody is not a wasted one, and it is the reason the town works as a base for several days. Planning it as the wet-weather option and letting it fall on whichever day the mountains disappear is a reasonable strategy.
The name
For most of its life it was the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, and a great deal of published material still calls it that. The institution, the site and the collections are the same. If you are working from an older guidebook or an old set of directions, they are pointing at this building.
Allow more time than the map suggests for getting there and away: it sits at the far end of Sheridan Avenue, where the street turns into the canyon road.
Common questions
What is the Buffalo Bill Center of the West?
A complex of five separate museums under one roof in central Cody: the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, the Whitney Western Art Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum and the Draper Natural History Museum. It is by a distance the largest indoor attraction in this part of Wyoming.
How long do you need at the Center of the West?
Half a day is the realistic minimum and it will feel rushed. Visitors with a specific interest in one of the five collections routinely spend a full day. Planning an hour, which people often do, is not enough to see one museum properly.
Is this the Buffalo Bill Historical Center?
Yes. It was known as the Buffalo Bill Historical Center for many years before being renamed. It is the same institution on the same site, and the old name still turns up in books and on older signage.
Is there a Buffalo Bill museum in Cody, Wyoming?
The Buffalo Bill Museum is one of the five museums within the Center of the West, dealing with William F. Cody himself, the scout, the showman and the town founder, more than with the wider West.
Is it worth visiting with children?
The Draper Natural History Museum, which covers the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, tends to hold children's attention best, and the firearms and Plains Indian collections are visually strong. The scale is the challenge, not the content.