When the writers of the American Guide Series book, Wyoming, a Guide to its History, Highways, and People, passed through this was still the Cody/Buffalo Bill Museum. With the construction of the vastly larger Buffalo Bill Center of the West Museum across the street, this building gave up its treasures, but remains a type of tourist destination as the Cody Visitor Center.
Now the home of the Cody Visitor Center, the Cody Chamber of Commerce, the Cody Country Art League, and possibly other organizations, this 1927 log structure was built larger than actual size but is somewhat patterned after Colonel Cody's T E Ranch home. The larger size was deemed necessary to house the artefacts it was to display. Dedicated and opened to public visitation on July 4, 1927, the building was intended as a venue for the vast collection of western and frontier memorabilia which Buffalo Bill had collected over the years. It was at the time, and possibly still is, the largest and most comprehensive collection of its type in existence.
The collection, however, was much larger than the original building so, over the years, a couple of architecturally sympathetic buildings were built on the site to house more of the collection. These, however, were not enough to house the ever growing collection.
In 1958, the Whitney Gallery, ultimately over 100,000 square feet in size, was built across Sheridan to the west. Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, son of Gertrude Vanderbilt
Whitney, sculptress of the iconic sculpture,
Buffalo Bill the Scout (also across Sheridan Avenue), donated a half million dollars toward construction of the Whitney Gallery. Ten years later the Buffalo Bill Historical Center was added to the gallery and was dedicated on July 4, 1969. Seven hundred feet long and more than one hundred twenty feet at its widest point, this impressive new structure was better able to display the equally impressive collection.
Some time after this building (the Stock Center) was vacated in 1969, Paul Stock, a Cody Country oil man, rancher and philanthropist, bought the Buffalo Bill Museum building and the grounds. His aim was to keep the building out of the hands of business interests who might ultimately tear the building down to develop the piece of prime commercial real estate. Stock then turned the property over to the city, details of the transaction unknown.