Picto Diary - 31 July 2018 - Buffalo Bill Center of the West

Above Granny's Restaurant sign. Cody, WY. 31 July 2018.

Convivial, well attended breakfast spot. All around good feeling in here. Good, competent, saucy service from a woman of a certain age, who has no doubt seen it all... having no problem bantering with, and one-upping, two would be comic motorcycling geezers.

I saw lots of traditional nuclear families eating breakfast here... getting a start of the rest of the day of their All American road trip vacation. Cody is at the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park. That these people (nukular [sic] families) are still around, seemingly inculcating traditional families values (hard work, play by the rules, sticks and stones yada) to their kids, gave me a boost of optimism about the future that I don't often feel. I just hope the parents are sensible enough to show care as to the universities their kids attend.

Harley people abounded at Granny's... getting ready for Sturgis, coming up in a few days.

Markco, His Highness and Mwah (sic) motorcycled to the Sturgis event in 1999. At that time, somewhere in South Dakota, near Sturgis, Markco, riding a Suzuki Hyabusa (200 mph top speed) overtook a pack of Harley riders, giving them what some of the Harley guys what they thought was an obscene gesture as he powered by. Markco slowed after he passed the pack, and four or five Harley riders jumped him and forced him off the road. A few seconds later I arrived at the scene and made what turned out to be a successful effort to get the Harley guys to back off of Markco, just at the moment they were about to beat the crap out of him. Markco denies ever giving the Harley guys a reason (gesture) to confront him.

I felt good defusing the confrontation near Sturgis. After all, I owed Markco. The year before, in Austin, NV, Markco, Elk, and Mwah (sic) were in a dingy bar after a day's ride from Sears Point race track in Sonoma County, CA. A drunk guy, half my size, walked up to me and started shoving me. "Hey," he said. "You're a big guy... I'll bet you get into a lot of fights." "Who, Mwah (sic)," I said. "No, I'm kind of a chicken... I don't like to fight." At that point, Markco, came up and sweet talked the little drunk away from a confrontation.

At a nearby table at Granny's this AM were a half dozen local farmers/ranchers. Geezers. ROMEOs. They looked like they had been dining together frequently in this fashion for the last forty years. You could overhear them talk about the cows, the irrigation rights, and the weather. Deplorables... people who work hard to make a living, raise families, and play by the rules.

We exited the restaurant about the same time as the ROMEOs. Markco chatted up one of them. "I'm from California," Markco said.

Geezer: "California!!!! You guys are nuts! Californians are going to start a civil war in America. I'm not worried though. We've got the guns."

Above: Buffalo Bill Wild West Show mural. Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Cody, WY. 31 July 2018.

Buffalo Bill Cody, a cavalry man during the Indian Wars, stayed in "Indian Country" after the hostilities stopped. He became an army scout and was known for killing over 4000 buffalo to feed the army still resident in the area.

In the mid 1880's, Cody met promoter Ned Buntline. Together they built Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which for 20 years was a major attraction in cities around the world. Bill and his show played before Queen Victoria and 20K spectators in London. At the turn of the century, Bill was the best known American in the world... the Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan of his day.

Since those days of the Wild West Show European performances, Europeans have had a super ordinary fascination with the American west and the cowboy. European fascination with the American West doesn't abate. Go to Bryce Canyon today and you are likely to hear more French spoken than English.

I've been to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West a half dozen times now. There are five or six museums. The Buffalo Bill exhibit. A fire arms exhibit. An Art Exhibit (Fredrick Remington, Thomas Moran yada), a museum of the American Indian, and a Natural History Exhibit... one other, maybe, I forget.

Today, after a quick review of the Buffalo Bill section, and a live presentation on owls/raptors, I spent the rest of the time in the Natural History Museum. Markco and Mwah (sic) spent from 9:00 AM to noon at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, which is a five star, must go, visit when in this area.

Above: Ameilia. Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Cody, WY. 31 July 2018.

Amelia the short eared owl. Lives in grasslands. Diurnal. Always camouflaged to blend in with surroundings. The short eared owl is one of few species of owl in north America that does not live in trees.— at Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

Markco and Mwah (sic) attended a forty minute live presentation on owls and other raptors. The center has fifteen birds. All of the animals are disabled... hit by cars, or whatever, and would not survive in the wild.

Above Map exhibit. Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Cody, WY. 31 July 2018.

Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Playground for Bishop and Markco over the last week.

Ranges. Montana, the Beartooth.

Wyoming. To the far east on the map are the Bighorn, which we rode across yesterday, coming from Sheridan, WY. To the east and southeast of Yellowstone are the Absoroka. The southeast appendage is the Wind River Range. Dubois, where we stayed on our first night out from Park City, is just south of the northern connection between the Wind Rivers and the Absoroka. We rode over Togwotee Pass after leaving Dubois, which is the northern connection point of the Wind River Range and the Absoroka range. Jutting south from Yellowstone is the Salt River Range...also in Idaho (left) and the Wyoming Range (right). The Salt Rivers and the Wyomings are separated by the Greys River. — at Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

Above: Wolves exhibit. Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Cody, WY. 31 July 2018.I

Well done, balanced approach of museum toward wolves exhibited in other facets of museum storyboards...global warming....natural resource extraction versus preservation....value of forest fires etc. — at Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

I liked this aspect of the museum. Its story boards represented all sides.... not like the US National Parks exhibit I saw at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument last May, which took very much a "Chicken Little" approach to man's putative impact on the planet's survival.

Above: Oil dependence exhibit. Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Cody, WY. 31 July 2018.

EXCEPT FOR THIS ONE!!!!!
Common guys you can do better than this!

Obama's most notable accomplishment was taking the nation from a dangerous level of energy dependency to total energy self sufficiency. The museum should not deny Obama the credit he deserves for this crowning achievement. This exhibit should be immediately rewritten to reflect the current situation, that being that the US is now self sufficient in oil and gas production.

Above: Bishop and Markco at Thermpolis Hot Springs, Wyoming. 31 July 2018.

The largest hot springs (water volume) in the world. — with Mark Cohen in Thermopolis, Wyoming.

Above: Cow and Fish symbols. Cowfish Restaurant, Lander, WY. 31 July 2018.

I've been eating at this restaurant for 20 years. Pretty good fine dining considering where you are.

Cowfish had none of the upbeat atmospherics of Wyoming Rib and Chop House in Sheridan and Cody... ie. a bit noisy and rowdy... but, the sedate, bland, more frue frue scene of Cowfish was more than compensated for by the excellent quality of its offerings. Would you believe I had an excellent bolognaise pasta dish? I had had just too much beef up to this day, and I didn't want fish.

Addendum:

Thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Indian Hill Team; was very happy to see that you [Dr. G] got a well-deserved award.

Markco,
Ojai, CA

Steve,

I believe you have Crook and his southern column confused with Terry, Gibbon, et al who came in from the Yellowstone River to the north behind Custer (“Save some for us Custer!”). Crook was badly mauled by the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne eight days before Little Big Horn at Rosebud Creek and drew back to his camp at Goose Creek to await reinforcements. Gibbon’s arrival from the north saved Reno and his men.
Regards,

The Colonel,
Bountiful, UT

I know. I know. Good get, Colonel! I just wanted to see if anyone was reading it! (Cough, cough)

"On June 27, the column under General Terry approached from the north, and the natives drew off in the opposite direction." Wikipedia

One way or the other, not Crook. Thanks for the correction.

In the 70s I spent some time in Cody working with Husky Oil. One very cold winter afternoon I checked into the Irma Hotel dropped my bags off and went to a meeting. I may have been the only guest in the hotel. When I returned to my room that evening I opened the blinds on the only window in the room to discover a brick wall. Strange—maybe it was the only heated room in the place. The Cody Museum was great.

The Monk,
Gooseberry, UT