Yet no place in Cody reminds me of the Wild West more than Old Trail Town with its collection of authentic and refurbished log cabins from the late 19th century. Relocated from Wyoming towns, they include the 1888 River’s Saloon with its full wooden bar and gaudy red wallpaper for example, and the 1885 Bonanza Post Office. My favorite is the 1883 Hole in the Wall Cabin with its bullet holes, and where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid once walked on its creaking wooden floors. A graveyard around back includes the final resting place of trapper and soldier John Johnston played by Robert Redford in the 1972 movie Jeremiah Johnson. On the outskirts of town, the Heart Mountain Relocation Center showcases a sad chapter in U.S. history on the grounds of what was one of the several internment camps for Japanese- Americans during World War II. Named for the nearby 8,123-foot-high eponymous block-like mountain peak, the center details how a total of 14,000 were forced to live in rows of barracks from 1942-1945. Only a few dilapidated original barracks remain today.
Cathedral-like rock formations east of Yellowstone’s East Entrance along US 14-16-20.
AND BEYOND On the way to Yellowstone’s Northeast Entrance, seeing the twisting roads and vast mountain ranges make a great day trip along Highway 296 known as the 46-mile-long Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. A half-hour drive southeast of Cody leads to the tiny drive-through town of Meeteetse with its three museums, including a landmark 1901 bank building. The Meeteetse Chocolatier shop was once an old saloon, but now lures visitors with its truffles and Belgian chocolates. Another hour drive beyond Meeteetse leads to Thermopolis which in Greek means “hot city,” appropriately named because the town’s Hot Springs State Park and Star Plunge Pool attraction are heated by geothermal waters. Thermopolis is also home of the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, one of the few dinosaur museums in the world to have an excavation site within a short drive.
Old Trail Town cabins, Cody.
For more information: https://www.nps.gov/yell www.codyyellowstone.org
Hole in the Wall Cabin at Old Trail Town, Cody.
YELLOWSTONE AND BEYOND
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE SPRING 2023 | 14
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