Cody Yellowstone Has Long History of European Connections, Thanks to Buffalo Bill Cody

The Cherrywood bar in the dining room of the Irma Hotel was a gift from Queen Victoria.

CODY, Wyo., April 2, 2025 – On any given night in the summer, visitors to Cody, Wyoming’s downtown or its Nite Rodeo will hear English, French, German, Italian and other accents. This is not an accident as Cody Yellowstone’s strong relationship with Europe goes back to a time before the town of Cody existed and even before Wyoming was a state.

In fact, many credit Cody’s town founder with being an instrumental figure in opening the West to Europe and helping to establish a solid bond between the United States and its closest ally. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody also was a major player in establishing a connection between Cody Yellowstone and the small sovereign state of Monaco.

“Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show was a tour de force, and over the 20-year period that he performed the show throughout Europe, Buffalo Bill became the most famous person in the world,” said Ryan Hauck, executive director of Cody Yellowstone, the marketing arm for the region that includes the towns of Cody, Powell and Meeteetse, a large swath of the Shoshone National Forest and about half of Yellowstone National Park. “His romanticized version of the American West prompted many Europeans to experience it for themselves, and our revered heritage of welcoming European travelers remains true today.”

The English Connection

Photo courtesy of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
The Camp Monaco tree in 1913.

In 1886 Buffalo Bill Cody received an invitation from London’s American Exhibition to bring his Wild West Show to perform the following year. After accepting the offer, the show packed up a steamship and headed to England for a series of shows beginning in May.

While the general public was fascinated with the Western characters and tickets sold briskly, England’s wealthy elite took interest as well. In fact, the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII, brought his wife and children to see a preview performance. After watching the show and meeting the performers, the prince urged his mother to consider attending a show.

The prince’s mother, Queen Victoria, had not attended a public performance since her husband died some 25 years earlier, but she decided to see the Wild West Show. After declaring independence more than 100 years earlier and fighting – and winning – The War of 1812 with England, the United States had a frosty relationship with its former colonial overlord. When word got out of Victoria’s pending attendance at the show, it was major news.

Arrangements were made for a command performance less than a week later, and on May 11 the queen was seated in the royal box for the start of the show when a rider entered the arena carrying the American flag. Although England had not heretofore recognized the United States as a country, Queen Victoria stood and bowed. As is custom, those in the arena did the same. Historians view this gesture as the beginning of the two countries’ status as allies.

Photo courtesy of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
The current Prince Albert next to the saved tree trunk.

Cody performed multiple times on this tour, but it was just the first of eight trips to Europe the Wild West Show made over the next 20 years. Europeans’ fascination with the American West continues to this day with countless vacationers making trips to national parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite and major cities like San Francisco and Las Vegas as well as smaller communities like Cody and Tombstone.

The Monaco Connection
In 1913 Prince Albert I was invited by hunter, artist and former superintendent of the Yellowstone Forest Reserve A.A. Anderson to be his guest on a hunt near Anderson’s ranch outside of Meeteetse, Wyo. The prince accepted the invitation and arrived during the Park County Fair where he met Buffalo Bill Cody.

After the prince and Anderson spent time hunting in the mountains near Meeteetse, the group made its way up the Wapiti Valley where Cody joined the group. Cody even offered up his hunting lodge Pahaska Tepee outside Yellowstone’s East Gate as a base for another hunt. A large group included the prince and his entourage as well as Cody, his son-in-law Bill Garlow, lead guide Fred Richard and others.

Louis Tinayre, an artist and member of the prince’s group, carved out a section of a large spruce tree and painted a bearpaw and the words “Camp Monaco 1913.” The tree was killed in the Yellowstone fires of 1988, and the portion containing the carving was moved to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in 1994.
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With the Irma Hotel anchoring Cody’s Sheridan Avenue, downtown looks much like it has for more than 100 years.

The hunt was a success, and resulting publicity helped make Cody Yellowstone a popular destination for hunters to this day.

Helping to keep the story alive is the prince’s great grandson, Prince Albert II of Monaco who has visited the area three times and spent time at the old Camp Monaco site. The current monarch has also endowed a prize administered through the Buffalo Bill Center of the West to support scientific research and public education.

Today
Like many destinations in the West, Cody Yellowstone attracts an abundance of international visitors. With its vast open spaces, national parks and authentic scenes that are decidedly “un-European,” Northwest Wyoming offers adventures such as dude ranches, unparalleled geology and wildlife viewing visitors do not find at home. Local residents are welcoming and eager to show guests the American West.

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Home of the Great American Adventure, Cody Yellowstone is comprised of the northwestern Wyoming towns of Cody, Powell and Meeteetse as well as the valley east of Yellowstone National Park. The region is known for rodeos, authentic guest and dude ranches, world-class museums and recreational adventures that reflect the adventurous spirit of the visionaries and explorers who brought the remote region to the world’s attention.

Related hashtags:
#CodyYellowstone
#CodyWyoming
#CenteroftheWest
#BuffaloBill
#Yellowstone

Media contact:
Mesereau Travel Public Relations
720-284-1512
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