Here’s What’s New and Notable in Cody Yellowstone in 2025
CODY, Wyo., Sept. 20, 2024 – From the 80th anniversary of the closure of the Heart Mountain WWII Confinement Site to the centennial of one of the most storied dude ranches in the country, Cody Yellowstone will mark numerous anniversaries of places and historic events in 2025 that have shaped this renowned northwestern Wyoming destination and secured its legacy as a must-visit destination for travelers from all over the world.
The Bill Cody Ranch turns 100 next year.
“Even as Cody Yellowstone has evolved into a destination known for its compelling outdoor recreational offerings and family-friendly attractions, it is essential that we also look back at the events through history that have had such a profound impact on the destination’s evolution as well as the continuing story of the American West,” said Ryan Hauck, executive director of Cody Yellowstone, the marketing arm of 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. “Some milestones like the sobering anniversary of the final departures of imprisoned Japanese Americans from Heart Mountain remind us to strive for better. And others, such as the anniversary of the construction of the Buffalo Bill Dam suggest that there is always room in our world for visionaries working to make things a little better.”
What’s new in 2025:
Heart Mountain WWII Interpretive Center is renovating a huge underground root cellar that was used by the Japanese-Americans confined there to store the
The Mineta-Simpson Institute at Heart Mountain WWII Interpretive Center will add Native American programming.
massive amounts of fresh produce that they grew and harvested. The root cellar will be open to the public upon completion of the renovation.
Native American programming will also be added to Heart Mountain WWII Interpretive Center in 2025. The interpretive center has recently hired a member of the Apsaalooke tribe to provide information and help visitors understand about the tribe’s historic roots in the Heart Mountain region.
The Mineta-Simpson Institute at Heart Mountain WWII Interpretive Center will launch its first full year of special public programming events designed to inform and engage visitors and prompt them to reflect on both the history of place and encourage open and meaningful dialogue to better understand shared history and to build empathy. The institute will offer events such as workshops focused on preparing daikon grown by local farms and programming centered around kimono, origami and calligraphy.
Vic Payne Studio & Gallery in Meeteetse showcases sculpture and creations of Vic Payne and other family members as well as local painters and mixed media artists. The gallery is in the recently renovated Meeteetse Mercantile Center.
Pure Heart Retreat, a new yoga retreat center in the tiny town of Wapiti, Wyo. between Cody and the East Gate of Yellowstone National Park will launch its first full year of operations.
Agricultural tours are offered through the Powell Chamber of Commerce.
Situated in a stunning valley with sweeping views of the Absaroka Mountains, the retreat includes an all-glass yoga dome and several guest domes for overnight visitors.
Agritourism tours are offered through the Powell Chamber of Commerce. The tours include stops at Powell area farms including Arrowhead Alpacas, Enchantment Creek Apothecary and Wyoming Heritage Grains. Many local restaurants and breweries serve products made from locally harvested produce. Breweries such as WyOld West Brewing Company, for example, use locally harvested barley. And Sitti’s Table, an immensely popular Cody restaurant with Lebanese-inspired menu creations, uses locally harvested grains and produce.
Fiddle Back Ranch near the town of Meeteetse is the area’s only working guest ranch. Guests can stay in a variety of cabins as well as RV sites and learn about the operations of the ranch while also enjoying outdoor recreation such as fishing and wildlife watching.
Cody has a burgeoning street art scene. Outdoor art, murals and sculptures can be viewed throughout the town of Cody on power boxes and walls of major
The Wyoming Buffalo Company will celebrate its 30th year.
attractions such as By Western Hands and the recently renovated Meeteetse Mercantile.
Notable anniversaries in Cody, Powell and Meeteetse:
100th anniversary of the Bill Cody Ranch. In 1925, Hollywood actor Leonard Morris established the Lazy Bar H Ranch. After many changes of ownership, the grandson of Buffalo Bill, also named Bill Cody, bought the ranch and renamed it Bill Cody’s Ranch Inn. The ranch is presently owned and operated by the Jelks family. Guests can experience an array of activities including trail rides, fly fishing, hiking, roping and horseshoes.
110th anniversary of Blackwater Creek Ranch. Originally known as “Blackwater Camp,” the ranch in the early days outfitted hunting, camping and fishing parties. The ranch still operates some of the original cabins built in 1915.
125th anniversary of the Chamberlin Inn. Agnes Chamberlin, an employee of Buffalo Bill’s Cody Enterprise newspaper (still in operation today), purchased a
Blackwater Creek Ranch will mark its 110th year.
sagebrush-covered vacant lot across the street from the newspaper’s office and built a boarding house. The hotel thrived, along with an in-house dentist office established by her husband Mark, who operated the medical office without the benefit of a license or training. The boarding house expanded into a major hotel and enjoyed a heyday, but it eventually deteriorated and became an eyesore. The hotel was purchased by new owners in 2005, who gutted and renovated the hotel and transformed it into the thriving boutique hotel that it is today.
80th anniversary of the closing of the Heart Mountain WWII Confinement Site . One of the bleakest periods in Cody Yellowstone history was the three-year period from 1942 to 1945, when more than 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were confined in camps around the country. Some 14,000 of those Japanese-Americans – most from California – were sent by train to the Heart Mountain WWII Confinement Site, a hastily assembled camp on barren, windswept land near Powell, about 15 miles from Cody. When the war ended, the state of Wyoming released the final incarcerees from the camp. Barracks were quickly purchased for as little as $1 by ranchers around the region and used as barns and storage. Cody visitors can learn about the confinement site today at the award-winning Heart Mountain WWII Interpretive Center on the site of the original camp.
130th anniversary of Buffalo Bill Cody laying out the original town site where Old Trail Town and Museum of the Old West now sits. Cody later changed the site to where the town is located today.
115th anniversary of the completion of the Buffalo Bill Dam. Water was as much a concern in the days of Buffalo Bill Cody as it is in the West today. Cody foresaw that and convinced the U.S. government to build a dam here to help conserve that precious resource. Today, agriculture thrives in this naturally arid area due to his foresight.
10th anniversary of By Western Hands. Established in 2015, this popular attraction has a three-part mission to educate, conserve and perpetuate the region’s legacy of Western design and traditional arts.
30th anniversary of the Wyoming Buffalo Company. Three generations of the same family of women have owned and operated this fun retail destination in downtown Cody since 1995. The store features sausages, salami, syrups, jerky and more.
115th anniversary of delivery of a White Steamer automobile to Buffalo Bill Cody. The first trip from Cody to Pahaska Tepee was made on July 5, 1910. The following year two more White Steamers were delivered.
130th anniversary of the formation of the Shoshone Land and Irrigation Company and the start of the Cody Canal. The company was created in 1895 by businessmen George T. Beck, William F. Cody, Nate Salsbury, Harry Gerrans, Bronson Rumsey, Horace Alger, and George Bleistein. In the fall of that year work began on the canal which would carry water from the Southfork of the Shoshone River east to the town.
Notable anniversaries in Yellowstone National Park
55th anniversary of new National Park Service (NPS) bear-management plan. Prior to 1970, visitors to Yellowstone would gather nightly and take their seats in NPS-supplied bleachers to watch wild black bear rummage through the park’s garbage dumps. During those less-than-enlightened days, predictably, bear-caused human injuries averaged 45 annually. After the National Park Service removed the open-pit dumps and bleachers, bears were forced to return to a natural diet of plant and animal foods, and the number of bear-human conflicts dropped to an average of 10 per year.
30th anniversary of the beginning of wolf restoration to Yellowstone National Park. After more than a century of misguided practices that led to the extermination of gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park, the species was listed as endangered, mandating its recovery under the Endangered Species Act. That 1974 listing led to a more than two-decade process to restore wolves to the park. In 1995 and the following year, 31 gray wolves from western Canada were relocated to the park. Due to the dedication of the National Park Service and many wildlife experts, the park’s wolf population as of Jan. 2024 is 124 wolves in 10 packs, a population that many believe is healthy and sustainable.
70th anniversary of the planning for Mission 66. With post-WW II national park visitation soaring, the National Park Service in 1955 persuaded Congress to fund a massive, 11-year improvement program with completion set for 1966, the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the National Park Service. Many buildings within Yellowstone National Park were developed or improved during this era.
105th anniversary of Roosevelt Lodge Cabins. Completed in 1920, Roosevelt Lodge Cabins is situated in Yellowstone’s Tower Falls area near a campsite once used by President Theodore Roosevelt. The remote lodge features rustic cabins, family-style dining and a huge front porch with a line of much-coveted rocking chairs. The lodge is the staging point for horseback trail rides, stagecoach adventures and the park’s popular Old West Dinner Cookout.
155th anniversary of naming Old Faithful Geyser. The geyser was discovered by members of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition on September 18, 1870. One explorer noted that it spouted at regular intervals and that the eruptions of the boiling water reached as much as 125 feet high. Yellowstone is home to more than 500 geysers representing more of than half of the geysers in the world.
110th anniversary of the year private automobiles were admitted to the park. Private automobiles began replacing touring cars, stagecoaches and other public transportation in 1915, and the park was never the same after that. With the freedom of exploring at their own pace, increasing numbers of independent-minded travelers entered the park. Annual park visitors more than doubled between 1914 and 1915, jumping from 20,250 visitors in 1914 to 51,895 in 1915.
95th anniversary of the Norris Geyser Basin Museum. Constructed of stone and log in an architectural style that became known as “parkitecture,” the museum is one of the park’s original trailside museums. It includes exhibits on geothermal geology, hydrothermal features and life in thermal areas.
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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.
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