See the Spooky Side of Cody Yellowstone
In just a few weeks, many people in Cody Yellowstone will become zombified. Even the sweet faces of innocent little children will begin appearing around town with blood dripping from their foreheads as they cling to the guiding hands of grown-ups, attired in bloody, shredded apparel.
As adults, teens, kids, and infants embrace their right to express their inner wacko, Halloween reminds us that a little quirk can be good for the soul.
And here in Cody, one of the country’s original Wild West towns, “quirk” comes naturally, and you don’t have to look far to find fun things to do and creepy, quirky, and even allegedly haunted places to see.
Things to Do:
Load up the kids with sugar
Cody is the kind of town that looks after its kiddos, and Halloween is no different. That’s when Sheridan Ave. closes to cars, and shops and restaurants up and down Sheridan Ave. hand candy and to costumed kids, as their parents wonder with each stop how they are going to get their little ones to bed after the resulting sugar highs. In nearby Powell, the Powell Tribune sponsors the annual Powell-O-Ween with trick-or-treating at a variety of stops downtown.
Head to The Haunt
For adults only, this fundraising event at the Cody Country Art League celebrates local art and Halloween with adult beverages, snacks, costumes, and more. Staged at the Cody Cattle Company, The Haunt will include a cash prize costume contest, food, drinks, and dancing.
Party time
Several restaurants, bars, and gathering places, including the Irma Hotel, Brewgards, Silver Dollar Bar, Fraternal Order of Eagles, and the Elkhorn Bar & Grill in Meeteetse, are staging Halloween parties and costume contests.
Lace-up your running shoes for the Graveyard Gallop
The Homesteader Museum in Powell, about 20 minutes from Cody, is hosting the 2nd annual Jim Beavers Memorial Graveyard Gallop 10K/5K/1 mile Run/Walk on Saturday, Oct. 26. In keeping with the theme, the race route passes Powell’s Crown Hill Cemetery.
Explore a Haunted House
Staged at the county fairgrounds, the haunted house is a fundraising event for Powell High School drama students.
Get lost in the Gallagher’s Corn Maze
Head to the town of Clark for a farm adventure that includes hayrides and hay slides, a petting zoo, and a pick-your-own-pumpkin patch.
Haunted Places
Irma Hotel
One of the most recognizable buildings on Cody’s Sheridan Ave., the Irma Hotel was built by Buffalo Bill Cody in 1902 and named for his daughter Irma. Irma and her husband Fred Garlow — manager of the hotel — both died tragically of the Spanish flu in October 1918. Irma was only 35 when she died, and Room 35 at the hotel is where there have been numerous reports of hauntings. Among the occurrences guests of that room have reported: water in the bathroom turns on and off by itself, belongings are moved to different locations in the room, and artwork is found on the floor where it couldn’t have simply fallen from the picture hooks. There have also been reports of guests and staff seeing an apparition of a soldier in a cavalry uniform with a sword, but only the soldier’s bottom half appears.
In another room, there have been reports of Irma herself in a rocking chair in the corner of a guest room. And servers in the dining room have reported seeing guests sitting in booths in the restaurant but finding no one there when they return to serve the guests.
In that same dining room, there’s a photo — circa the early 1900s — of a ghostly figure hanging out in the dining room surrounded by a few men at the bar, seemingly undaunted by the eerie extra in their group.
J.H. Vogel Building
Now the home of a thriving retail store called the Cowboy Palace, the J.H. Vogel Building is another place with a history of hauntings. When the building opened in 1912, proprietor J.H. Vogel and his wife made full use of every nook and cranny of the building by operating a furniture store in the front and a mortuary in the back. Just a curtain separated the two businesses, so presumably furniture shoppers were occasionally distracted by the presence of sorrowful mourners paying their respects to their deceased loved ones. Several businesses have operated in the building over the years, and many of those business owners have reported seeing a small boy in strange clothing roaming the aisles.
Cody Cemetery
There have also been reports of apparitions roaming around a field that was once a Cody cemetery. The graves in the cemetery were relocated in the 1960s because irrigation and heavy rains caused some of the coffins in shallow graves to rise to the surface. The effort to relocate the cemetery was only partially successful, and Cody locals have surmised that some of the graves were missed and bodies may still be buried beneath what is now just a field.
Nelson Performing Arts Center at Northwest College
When it is not being used by students staging performances at this college in Powell, Wyo. near Cody, the auditorium and classrooms at Nelson Performing Arts Center are reportedly frequented by ghosts. Some students have reported hearing strange sounds and seeing ghostly figures late at night. One of the seats (we’re not telling which one) is especially haunted, with a persistent recurring ghost insisting on sitting in the seat alone late at night.
Cowboy Bar in Meeteetse
Continuously operated since 1893, this storied watering hole has seen some stuff. It’s the kind of place where shootouts really did happen, and its rough-and-tumble clientele were often on the other side of the law. It’s no wonder there have been reports of weird goings-on. Regulars have watched full glasses of liquor fall off the bar and then land on the ground upright without a drop spilled. There have also been reports of banging noises and the sound of footsteps stomping across an empty bar.
Kirwin Ghost Town
High in the mountains above Meeteetse, Kirwin was a bustling town with a population of 200 people at the peak of its mining days, but an avalanche that killed four people combined with the mining bust turned the tiny town into a ghost town in just months. Visitors can still take a UTV on the trails to the town and explore what is left of the buildings there. Many visitors have reported feeling a paranormal presence in the empty buildings — as if they’re not really alone.
Strange and Spooky Places:
While maybe not haunted, Cody has its share of strange and macabre places.
Spirit Mountain
Just five miles from Cody, this 7,890-foot peak is commonly called Cedar Mountain. You can view this prominent peak from many places throughout Cody. Town founder Buffalo Bill Cody loved the mountain and told his friends he wanted to be buried there so he could forever overlook his beloved town. When he died in Denver in 1917, however, his estranged wife Louisa accepted $10,000 from the city of Denver and the publisher of The Denver Post so that the city could bury the still-famous Wild West Show visionary in Denver instead of Cody. Whether or not that actually happened depends on who you ask. The folks at the Buffalo Bill Grave in Golden, Colorado, will assure you that it is indeed Buffalo Bill buried in the grave there. Yet many people in Cody believe a different story, involving a caravan of Buffalo Bill’s friends, a long drive to Denver, body-switching, a return trip to Cody with the authentic remains of Buffalo Bill, and a secret burial on Spirit Mountain. And that is where Buffalo Bill Cody still rests today, overlooking the town he founded.
Mummy Cave
Just a short hike from the road north of the Shoshone River in Wapiti Valley, a Cody resident discovered a cave with the remains of a remarkably well-preserved, 1,200-year-old man that residents dubbed “Mummy Joe.” The discovery was remarkable for many reasons. He was buried under a massive overhang of a high volcanic cliff more than 6,000 feet above sea level, which offered the perfect climate for long preservation. Joe, archaeologists have surmised, was a big-game hunter, because there were thousands of well-preserved animal bones — probably of bighorn sheep and deer — resting alongside Joe’s remains. There were also perishable materials like arrows, feathers, baskets, beads, and nets. Mysteriously, the cave was occupied for many years after Mummy Joe died, which begs the question of why the residents of the cave didn’t move the mummified remains.
Smith Mansion
The Smith Mansion, which locals call “Crazy House,” is a rambling five-story structure perched on a hill on the south side of the Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway. Owner Lee Smith built the structure bit by bit over many years. Smith and his wife raised two children there, and Smith continually worked on the house, adding architectural elements like seemingly random exterior staircases and containers made from metal scraps. On a windy day in 1992, Lee was working on the upper floors without safety tethers. He fell from the roof and died. After the family moved out, the house slowly decayed in the harsh elements. On some windy day, it may crumble to the ground. Until then, it sits, abandoned, on a lonely spot overlooking the highway.
Chamberlin Inn
This luxury boutique inn is one of Cody’s showplaces and a delight for anyone lucky enough to spend the night in one of the inn’s impeccably appointed rooms. Named for the inn’s original proprietress, Agnes Chamberlin, a couple of the inn’s street-facing rooms once served as a dentist’s office where Agnes’s husband Mark used to practice. Although he called himself a dentist, there is no record of him ever having a license to practice. So presumably, he was practicing his trade on the un-numbed-up mouths of Cody locals. Just a little nugget that is good to know for visitors planning an overnight adventure in one of Cody’s most charming accommodations.
The Coffin School
Among the many preserved frontier buildings at Old Trail Town is The Coffin School. Built in 1884 at the W Bar Ranch on the Wood River, the building was indeed used as a school. But it was also the one-time cabin of frontiersman Alfred Nower. One day while hewing logs, Nower accidentally cut his legs. He returned to his cabin in hopes of recovery, but he eventually died of gangrene from his wounds. Like all buildings at Old Trail Town, the Coffin School was moved to the Cody site, reassembled and furnished with frontier-era school desks.
Ready to see the spooky side of Cody Yellowstone for yourself? Start planning your visit today with your free vacation planning guide.
