The growth of sheep ranching in the late 1890s brought Basque to the area as the Bighorns reminded them of the Pyrenees Mountains of their homeland. They still practice the tradition and yet we can't find a Basque restaurant in Buffalo. But the cattle preceded the sheep and there is quite a history of cattle rustling.
The Occidental Hotel caught my eye immediately. It is still an operating hotel full of antiquities. Margaret Smith was the proprietress for many years after her husband won it in a poker game. It is strange that her clothes are hung on the walls between the upstairs rooms.
It is supposedly the only restored old hotel, which began in a tent in 1879, in Wyoming. True Magazine named it "The Best Hotel in the West" in 2007. I am not sure I would want to stay there but had Leon not had a summer cold I would have enjoyed a drink in the saloon and dinner in the Virginian restaurant, so named for the book that Owen Wister wrote while staying at the hotel.
The 1908 back bar in the saloon is handsome. Guests have included Teddy Roosevelt, Calamity Jane, and Buffalo Bill Cody and many other dignitaries shown in pictures hanging on the walls. The wall painting in Crazy Woman Park let us know that this is not a one horse town.
I found a little humor in this sign posted on the creek to gauge water levels. The town had suffered a flood in the past and obviously knows what to do.
The town also has a number of early 20th century bungalows and a few mansions. We of course drove by some before heading back to Sheridan where we encountered several wanderers from the Rainbow Gathering in Montana recently. Had they had a front windshield they would have moved on. Where are Barbara and Ron when we need normal people?
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We saw that horse on the highway, I think when we were leaving Sheridan in the RV.
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