10 Best Sights in Cody, Sheridan, and Northern Wyoming, Wyoming

By Western Hands

Fodor's choice

In a restored downtown hardware store, this nonprofit juried artisan guild and museum is devoted to preserving and showcasing Cody's profound influence on Western design as it applies to furniture and decorative arts. Inside the galleries you can view pieces by legendary Cody designers like Edward Bohlin who with his eventual Hollywood connections become known as the "saddle maker to the stars," and furniture craftsman Thomas Molesworth. Additionally, the showrooms are filled with ornately crafted works by the guild's members, who continue to further Cody's Western design legacy.

Cody Dug Up Gun Museum

Fodor's choice

The intriguing name of this museum fully states its unusual mission: to collect and exhibit firearms and other weapons that have been exhumed from the earth (or, in the case of an old musket, entombed inside a tree trunk). The knowledgeable husband-and-wife owners have amassed some 1,300 items, ranging from rusted-out mid-19th-century revolvers to rifles used by mobsters in the 1930s. Every artifact in this fascinating museum seems to tell a story that might otherwise have been lost to obscurity.

Wyoming Whiskey

Fodor's choice

The complex small-batch whiskeys produced by this craft distiller have received high marks from top spirits critics around the world. Fans of premium, barrel-age bourbon now flock to tiny Kirby (population 92, 13 miles north of Thermopolis) to sample and buy these smooth sippers and tour the handsome silo-style building in which they're distilled.

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Historic Cody Mural & Museum

The Cody Mural, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presents a larger-than-life artistic interpretation of Mormon settlement in the West. Edward Grigware painted the 36-foot-diameter scene on the domed ceiling in the 1950s. A small museum contains historical artifacts as well as interactive kiosks where visitors can explore their genealogy.

Medicine Bow National Forest, Douglas District

The Medicine Bow National Forest, Douglas District, southwest of Douglas in the Laramie Peak area, includes four campgrounds ($5–$10 for camping; campground closed in winter) and areas where you can fish and hike.

Meeteetse Museums

Anchoring the historic downtown of this small community named for the Shoshone term for "meeting place," this collection of three free history museums is well worth a stop on the scenic drive along Highway 120 between Cody and Thermopolis. The most interesting of the group is the Charles Belden Museum of Western Photography, which occupies a 1919 former drugstore and contains photographs, Molesworth furniture, and other items that once belonged to the renowned early-20th-century photographer, whose works are featured prominently in Life magazine and National Geographic. The Bank Museum and Meeteetse Museum occupy other nearby vintage buildings and present engaging exhibits on the region's human and natural history.

Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center

At this interpretive center inside a modern log cabin just up the road from the Bighorn Canyon Visitor Center, photos, printed materials, and helpful volunteers introduce people to the 120 to 140 mustangs that roam over 38,000 acres of range. Although many of the mustangs will likely be up in the mountains, you're almost sure to see some right from the paved road, Highway 37, which is a short drive east of the center. This could include White Cloud, a stallion featured in two books by Ginger Kathrens.

Shoshone National Forest

Established in 1891 as the country's first designated national forest, this 2.4-million-acre tract of alpine woodland, sagebrush flats, and verdant meadows extends west from Cody to Yellowstone National Park (which is roughly the same size). At both the headquarters south of downtown and the Clarks Fork, Greybull, and Wapiti Ranger Districts office on the west side of Cody (E203A Yellowstone Ave., Cody), you can pick up maps, buy permits, and obtain advice on the many activities you can pursue in the forest—hiking, camping, fishing, mountain biking, horseback, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing—and the best places to enjoy them. Some highlights include the well-preserved ghost town of Kirwin, about 65 miles south of Cody, and the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone, a designated Wild and Scenic River during its 20½-mile course through the forest about 30 miles northwest of Cody.

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Stagecoach Museum

Artifacts from early settlement days and the period when the Cheyenne–Deadwood Stage Line was in full swing are some of the displays at the Stagecoach Museum. You also can get information about the Texas Cattle Trail.

Werner Wildlife Museum

The Werner Wildlife Museum, near the Casper College campus, has displays of birds and animals from Wyoming and around the world. There are more than 400 birds, fish, and animal species on display across 36 different exhibits.

Cody, Sheridan, and Northern Wyoming

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