The statue, Buffalo Bill – The Scout was initiated by Buffalo Bill Cody’s niece, Mary Jester who then persuaded artist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney to sculpt the piece. Following a first failed attempt at immortalizing the historical significance of Buffalo Bill Cody, Gertrude thought to use a horse and cowboy from Cody for artistic inspiration. Proven successful, the statue was dedicated on July 4, 1924. The Scout stands on a large stone base at the end of Sheridan Avenue, Cody’s main thoroughway.

The Buffalo Bill Museum looks at the personal and public lives of William Frederick Cody, Buffalo Bill. Find out about cowboys, dude ranching, life on the frontier and the Wild West. There’s information about Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show which ran for 30 years and traveled around the world. William Cody was also famed as a hunter, so it’s fitting that the Cody Firearms Museum houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of American firearms.

You can’t look at the history of the West without considering the Plains Indians. The Plains Indian Museum charts the traditions, cultures, lives and histories of the Plains Indians then and now. Most of the collection consists of artifacts from the Cheyenne, Shoshone, Crow, Arapaho and Lakota from the 1880-1930 period.

Other museums within the Buffalo Bill Historical Center are the Whitney Gallery of Western Art. This museum has a wide range of works by respected artists. It’s currently closed for refurbishment and will reopen in June 2009. However, a temporary gallery is open on the lower level. The Draper Museum of Natural History opened in 2002 with the aim of presenting a wider perspective on the American West.

Explore Buffalo Bill’s Historical Museum and many other museums located in Cody, Wyoming