The best museum in the American West?

Question

I'm taking my first trip to the American West soon (I live in the UK) and as I only have a couple of weeks to see the best that South Dakota and Wyoming have to offer am looking to make the most of my time. We plan to visit the major sites such as Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore and The Badlands, and major towns. Also I have read that there are many, many museums and centres treating on the subject of the history of the area - but which to choose? I'm particularly interested to learn more about the 18th century history: the building of the railroads, settling, mining, and of course The Great Sioux Nation. Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

A tip of the chapeau to your choice of location, as you are going to a great area of the American West.

As a resident of the Midwest I ventured to Wyoming with my family 10 years ago, flying into Denver, renting a car and driving up the east side of Wyoming  from Cheyenne to Sheridan, acorss to Cody ( Yellowstone ) over to the Grand Titans, then south on state highways to Intersate 80 and back to Denver.

See if you can get Frommer's  Montana and Wyoming guide book, mine does list  a UK cost of 12 pounds 99, US $16.95  but  this is rather old. They list a web site as  www.frommers.com

Some of the sites we saw were The Terry Bison Ranch, south of Cheyene, take Exit 2 off of Interstate 25.....a very large buffalo ranch where we got to ride on a wagon INTO a buffalo herd, great until one of the old bulls decided to charge our buckboard wagon...but our driver sensed it coming and got the horses to pull us away rather quickly....we only spent about 4 hrs here, though you could spend the entire day with a wide variety of activities.

We traveled up to Sheridan where we spent the night before driving over to Cody....BUT, I would suggest going East  from Buffalo, Wyoming over to Devils Tower National Monument.  This is the 1,200 foot rock that is of great religious significance to the American Indian.  

The Indian legend  is that it was created by an uplift that occurred after 7 Indian girls who were being chased by a gizzley prayed to the spirits for intervention and thus were saved by the rocks creation. Devils Tower is a renowned rock climbing peak, and played a significant part in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

I am sure you could find a lot of American Indian items of interest here.

From Sheridan going west across the Big Horn Mountain range, you get to Cody, near to Yellowstone.  Cody is named for Buffalo Bill Cody, and has the Buffalo Bill Historical Center,( Frommers guide calls it the Smithsonian of the West.  web site:   www.TrueWest.com

$8  for an adult

It is  a large museum complex of The Whitney  Gallery of Western Art, the Buffalo Bill museum, the Plains Indian Museum and Cody Firearms museum.  Also just down the road from downtown Cody is the Museum of the Old West Old Trail Town, a reconstruction of more than 20 historically documented buildings of the late 1800's.  Also there is the Cody Nite Rodeo, nightly at 8:30 from June thru August

The above were great, though the rodeo didn't leave a great impression, but hey you are out West so one needs to go to a rodeo.

We took a  private driven tour of Yellowstone from a company located in Cody.  We were in a large SUV that could hold up to 15 but as luck would have it was my family of 5 plus one other gentleman.  If memory serves me well we toured the NORTH end of Yellowstone, as it has less touristy areas and thus is far less crowded than the South end. My receipt says it was the Powder River Tours and it cost us $150 plus entrance tickets to Yellowstone.  Our driver was very knoweldgeable and the tour was over 8 hours.

  We then went around the South end by ourselves over 2 days,seeing Old Faithful, and taking a hike into the woods.  Lots of tourists, except of course not in the woods as few bother to go away from the main attractions.  I urge you to take a hike.  I also remember visiting a house that Buffalo Bill had, it was near an entrance area to Yellowstone coming from Cody I believe.  

We then traveled over to the Grand Tetons,  past Jackson Hole.  At the Tetons we stayed on the perimeter and took a hike in the park.  We did not do a lot here as our young daughters were getting worn out with traveling, but it is a breath taking area and do some hiking here, or go on the lake.

From the Tetons to Laramie was all state highways and there is always places of interest that come up along the way.

Out side of Yellowstone we stayed at the BIll Cody Ranch, www.wtp.net/BillCody, phone [phone]    I had wanted to stay at some ranch but found that generally they all want you to book for a week.  The Bill Cody Ranch allowed any length, and provided activities to do. It was a medium size place, nice.

Hope this helps.....prices of course are in 1998 values and all web sites from materials I have kept from the trip.  Who knows what prices  are today but for you British it should be "cheap" what with the exchange rate in your favor!!!!  Take time to explore things on the side, it was harder for us as we had 3 young'uns in tow.

Answer 2

It's best that when you get here, to pick up pamphlets in just about any store or Chamber of Commerce for the city you are in.

Answer 3

The Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming.  

Answer 4

The Museum of Science and Industries in downtown Chicago