WY (Cody)

Driving from Yellowstone, I went alongside the Shoshone River to the Buffalo Bill Dam and Reservoir.  Below the surface of this reservoir once stood Marquette.  Small ranches lined both sides of the river.  The government bought these properties in 1905 for $400,000 and the Shoshone Project was completed in 1910, which created electrical power, supplied water for drinking and irrigation, provided a habitat for fish and wildlife, created recreational opportunities, and maintained flood control.  At the time it was finish, it was the largest dam in the world and was built with no steel reinforcement.

This is a view from the Visitor's Center on top of the dam.

In order to see the dam, you had to park on the side of the road just past the tunnels and walk through the desert grass.  There is no parking area for it.

The dam is by Shoshone Canyon, which is a gorge cut through the Rattlesnake Mountain by the wearing of the Shoshone River.  The mountain rises 3700 ft above the surrounding terrain.  Granite exposed by the dam is over 1 billion years old!  North of the dam, a fault in the earth's surface lies adjacent to the steeply inclined rocks.  Compressive forces caused rocks to move 2000 ft vertically along the fault.

This is called Colter's Hell.  John Colter, a mountain man, crossed the "Stinking Water" (Shoshone River called that due to the rotten egg smell from the sulfur) about one mile downstream and discovered an active geyser district.  Steam mixed with sulfur fumes and shooting flames escaped through vents in the valley floor, with subterranean rumbling.  (These eruptions are now only cones of parched stone - it's an extinct geyser basin.)

Colter's Hell is in Cody, WY.  Buffalo Bill Cody and business partners established the Shoshone Irrigation Co in 1894.  This area became Cody City in 1895 and was rebuilt for tourists as "Trail Town".  The streets of the town were named after Civil War generals.  Charles Demaris settled there here in 1882 and developed the hot springs (now known as "DeMaris Springs").

Colter's Hell Trail didn't appear to have anything on it, but offered great views of this historical area, including the Shoshone Canyon, Cedar Mountain (known by the Crow Indians as mountain of spirits - Indian tree burials were found on this slope), Rattlesnake Mountain, the red butte (the site of the first Indian trading post), Blue Bead Mountain (later named as Pat O'Hara Mountain), Buffalo Heart Mountain, and McCullough Peaks (named after a trail driver who brought the first herd of cattle into the area).

During the winter if 1869 and 1870, a group of 116 gold prospectors gathered in Cheyenne to organize the "Big Horn Expedition".  These men were determined to push their way into the Big Horn Basin despite the Indian Treaty of 1868.  Before they reached the Wind River, they found 3 freighters who had recently been killed by Indians.  Still they continued, evading the US Army.  The Army learned about them and went to their camp to break them up, but they simply regrouped and continued.  While hunting for game, McHenry was killed by Indians.  The rest of the prospectors continued on and headed north on the future side of Cody City.  They then crossed the Shoshone River and headed on to Montana.

Old Trail Town is a remake of the Old Cody City and preserves the lifestyle and history of the Frontier West.  These historic buildings were disassembled, moved here, and then carefully reassembled.  These are also original cabins used by Old West outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and a saloon frequented by Cassidy's "Hole-in-the-Wall Gang".  Also on this site is the log cabin home of "Curley" - a Crow Indian army scout who helped guide Lt Col George Custer and the US 7th Calvary to the battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876.  Old Trail Town also has gravesites for famous people like John Colter and Jedediah Smith.

After walking through the Old Cody City, I went into the Irma Hotel for dinner.  They had an Old West show going on outside, that was hilarious!!!  LOL

When in Cody, it's almost a "must" to go to a rodeo!  This was my first time at a rodeo and I had a blast!!!!  I had my cowboy boots on of course, and just about everyone it seemed had cowboy boots and hats on.  There was bull riding and bull fighting, as well as a little comedy intermission dance by the clowns.

Here's the first video.

This video is painful to watch!

No one could stay on the horse more than a few seconds!!!

Cody was a great place to stop for the night, and with so much to do (and a lot of history), I'd strongly recommend it to anyone!  Cody also has wild horses you can see.  I didn't want to pay but drove out there on my own.  However, I didn't see any after about 15 minutes of watching the open areas early the next morning.