Day (Or 2 Or 3) Trip: Cody, Wyoming

By Jeff Burns

Cody Wyoming was named for its founder, Buffalo Bill Cody, the scout, hunter, and Wild West Show creator.  Located about an hour from Yellowstone National Park, Cody is full of great attractions.

Whether you stay there or not, you have to visit the Hotel Irma, built by Buffalo Bill Cody and named for his daughter.  The rooms are quaint and old-fashioned, but a little pricey. Have a meal in the restaurant and then walk around the lobby and gift shop.  Every evening during the summer, the street in front of the hotel is closed off for a Wild West shootout show. 

The biggest attraction in Cody is the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, sometimes called the “Smithsonian of the West.” It’s actually five museums in one, and you could spend a couple or three days exploring the Center alone.  The museums are the Draper Museum of Natural History, the Plains Indian Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum, the Whitney Western Art Museum, and the Buffalo Bill Museum dedicated to the life of the showman.

Every third weekend of June, the Center hosts an annual Plains Indian Powwow, which brings tribal dancers and Native American artisans from throughout the West to the performance area next door to the Center. It is a fantastic experience, an auditory and visual spectacle that will stay with you for a long time. Word of Advice:  Book your hotel early if you plan to be in town for the powwow, at least 6 months in advance.  Rooms fill fast.

For a taste of the Old West, visit Old Trail Town, a collection of cabins and buildings from the area that have been set up for visitors.  The cabins include cabins belonging to Curly, one of the Crow Indian scouts with Custer at Little Bighorn, and Jeremiah “Liver-eating” Johnson, the real life mountain man portrayed in the 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson by Robert Redford. You can also explore a cabin and saloon occupied and patronized by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Johnson is one of several notables buried at Old Trail Town, along with Buffalo Bill himself.

About twenty minutes from Cody, you can find the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, one of 10 internment camps built during World War II for thousands of Japanese-Americans forced from their homes on the West Coast following the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Not much remains of the original structures of the camp, but the Interpretive Center is excellent.  This was one of the darkest moments in American history, and the Heart Mountain complex does a great job of telling this painful story.

It is Wyoming, so summertime is rodeo time in Cody.  There’s an amateur rodeo every night from June through August, and a big professional rodeo is in town the first week of July. In town, there are neat shops and restaurants.  Cody offers a lot to keep you occupied.

 

Visiting the Road to Tara Museum

By Margaret Duncan, Ed.D.

In June, I was able to visit and tour the Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro, Georgia.  Jonesboro is south of Atlanta and the county seat of Clayton County.  Since the 1936 publication of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind, Jonesboro and Clayton have been billed as the “Home of Gone With The Wind.”  Located in Jonesboro’s 1867 Historic Train Depot, the museum is dedicated to Mitchell’s book and the 1939 classic film.  Why Jonesboro?  Margaret Mitchell spent her childhood summers at her grandparents’ home in the area and look closely at the movie and you will see a check listing the bank of Clayton County. 

Within the museum are personal items that belonged Mitchell like her china.  However, much of the museum is dedicated to the GWTW.  There are a number of detailed and accurate reproductions of the famous costumes worn by Vivien Leigh (Scarlett O’Hara), Hattie McDaniel (Mammy), Ona Munson (Belle Watling), Ann Rutherford (Careen O’Hara), and Cammie King Conlon (Bonnie Blue Butler).  There are also a large number of foreign translations of the GWTW book and movie posters.

Many of the items in the museum belonged to local historian and collector, Herb Bridges, who passed away in 2013.  He had one of the largest private collections of GWTW memorabilia.  During his life, he would be happy to attend and speak at many events relating to GWTW.  He also published a book on his collection.  The museum does pay tribute to Bridges.

Although the museum is primarily dedicated to GWTW, there are also exhibits relating to the Civil War.  The Battle of Jonesboro was one of the last battles that took place as part of the Battle of Atlanta on Sherman’s March to the Sea.  As such, Jonesboro doesn’t just have a strong GWTW tie, but is also part of America’s Civil War past.  Exhibits dedicated to the Civil War include an authentic “Sherman’s necktie.” Simply put, this was a section of rail twisted into a loop so it would be useless.  After Sherman’s March, the South was full of these twisted chunks of rail.  Further, the Depot was built for the cotton industry—weighing and then shipping the cotton to the industrial north.  The Depot still has the original Fairbank Scale which was used to weigh the cotton.

The museum is self guided but there are sound stations throughout the museum.  At the stations you will hear the voice of Fred Crane, the actor who played Brent Tarleton in the movie.  Listening to him you will hear several personal stories including being on the movie set and attending the grand premiere at the Loew’s Theater in Atlanta.

If you are a fan of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind or are a Civil War history buff, we recommend taking a tour of the Road to Tara Museum. 

For more information: Road to Tara Museum



 

Traveling with History: Montana

By Margaret Duncan, Ed.D.

Do you like to travel?  Do you like History?  Do you like combining both?  One of the places to visit with an eye towards history is Montana—a state where you can walk in the steps of Lewis & Clark or dinosaurs, visit Ghost Towns or battlefields, or just soak in the beauty of nature.  Montana is home to all these things, as well as Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. It is also the home of several Indian Nations like the Crow, Blackfeet, and Sioux.  It is a great destination for anyone who loves to travel with a mind to history and nature. 

Some great sites to see:
Billings, Montana-- Montana’s largest city was founded in 1882 and named for Frederick Billings, the president of the Northern Pacific Railroad.  As such, Billings was a transportation hub.  I found Billings to be a nice quaint city.  It was smaller than cities I am used to but certainly was an introduction to how cities in the west are. 

 

Crow Agency—To the East of Billings is Crow country, and while visiting there I was very excited to witness a PowWow and listen to Vietnam Veteran, Carson Walks Over Ice discuss traditional dances, and another elder educate us as to how a Teepee is set up.  We were also treated to dinner--traditional Indian Taco followed by the powwow program.  The only downside was that it was held indoors because of bad weather.  We were also educated about the Sun Dance which was abolished by government and missionaries because of fear in 1875.  Sun Dance is a way of prayer--Height of Apex of Sun.  Participants go without food and water for 3 days and pray for the 3 days.  Pray for sickness, suffering, soldiers, etc…  In 1941, the Sun Dance was revived.  A Sun Dance is held every August and the older generations teach to the younger the dances and songs.  During the Powwow we saw a number of examples of traditional dress:  such as use of birds, fur bearing animals, shiny things, moccasins, bones, moose teeth, bells, beaded bands for wrists, head and arms, paint on face, colorful – Blended with modern things such as Sponge Bob, flip flops, tennis shoes, basketball shorts, cell phones, etc.

Little Big Horn Battlefield—This is an immense battlefield and I was shocked to see how big this area really is.  This area was changed once gold was discovered in the Black Hills.  Yellow Hair--George Armstrong Custer was sent to take the Black Hills from the Indians.  His opponent was Sitting Bull.  This was the last armed effort of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their ancestral way of life.  The Army sent 3 columns of soldiers to create a trap for Indians in the middle which included Custer.  The Calvary was supposed to find the enemy and infantry was supposed to fight, the scouts came across an Indian village camped along Little Big Horn River--Crow’s nest--the largest teepee camp in North America had been formed and was larger than city of Los Angeles.  The scouts described the horses as a brown carpet on the open prairie.  The fight only lasted about 20 minutes and very few Indians were actually killed, Custer was one of the first to die.

Lewis & Clark—Dinosaurs are not the only ones to have left a trail to follow.  On April 25, 1805, Lewis & Clarks’ Corps of Discovery camped by what would become Fort Union.  They hoped they were only weeks away from the Pacific, via the never to be found Northwest Passage. The group rested and celebrated their arrival at the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. The expedition journals noted the spot's potential as a trade location.  Entering what would become Montana but at the time was the land of the Blackfeet.

Dinosaur Trail--The Montana Dinosaur Trail features some of the greatest paleontological finds of the last century. T-rex, Miaisaur, Hadrasaur--these are just a few of the interesting dinosaurs you'll find along Montana's Dinosaur Trail. All of them are dug out from the earth by some of the most prominent paleontologists around.

These are just some of the highlights to see if you head to Montana to experience history and nature.  What would you include in your historical tour of Montana?