Buffalo Bill Recommends... Cody, Wyoming Just two hours from B

The past is always present in Cody Country. This part of Wyoming represents the last of the true West.

Cody is what America was, a place where the cowboy culture thrives and where the new west begins.

The vistas are spectacular, the land is wild, the people are genuinely friendly and the opportunities for outdoor adventure, recreation, education and entertainment are as large and varied as the Wyoming skies.

Cody Country has a well developed hospitality industry with varied lodging opportunities, fine dining, world class museums and western activities. Cody is the only gateway community with two entrances to Yellowstone National Park and Cody is the hub for several loop tour drives that access five different Scenic Byways.

For exceptional Yellowstone Country travel information, including an on-line trip planner visit the Buffalo Bill’s Yellowstone Country website at www.yellowstonecountry.org.

Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Increases Open Hours

As spring approaches—at least on the calendar, that is—the Buffalo Bill Historical Center expands its operating schedule beginning Monday, March 1. Throughout March and April, the Center is open daily, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. The summer season kicks off May 1 with a daily schedule of 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.

To stay abreast of all its activities, the Historical Center reminds area residents to follow its calendar at bbhc.org, visit its Facebook page, or call 307-587-4771.

Committed to connecting people with the Spirit of the American West, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center weaves the varied threads of the western experience—history and myth, art and Native culture, firearms technology and natural history—into the rich panorama that is the American West. The center is an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

The Story of the Lewis and Clark Journey in 100 Paintings

Charles Fritz, An Artist with the Corps of Discovery at BBHC

Charles Fritz has always loved history.

One look at this summer’s exhibition of his Lewis and Clark paintings at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and viewers will say, “We can tell.”

This popular western artist brings his exhibition An Artist with the Corps of Discovery: One Hundred Paintings Illustrating the Journals of Lewis and Clark to the historical center for a three-month stay. It opens to the public on June 6, 2009, and will remain on view through August 30.

Ten years ago, Fritz received a commission to paint a scene from the Journals of Lewis and Clark. In the process, he discovered the Corps of Discovery had no artist traveling with them who could document the sites and experiences of the journey. An idea began to gel that would find Fritz traveling the entire route of the expedition twice, his palette in one hand, the Lewis and Clark journal entries in the other.

In the end, he created scores of paintings, sketches, and studies depicting the Lewis and Clark adventure, a hundred of which will be included in the One Hundred Paintings exhibition.

Born in 1955, Fritz grew up in Mason City, Iowa, and studied history and education at Iowa State University in Ames. Soon his interest in art became his focus, and he decided to forego a teaching career. He moved to Montana in 1980 and became enamored of the history of the Great Plains and the West. Today, he lives in Billings, Montana, with his wife and two sons and paints historical subjects in “vast, luminous landscapes.”

Fritz’s work is familiar to western art aficionados as it’s included in numerous museum exhibitions and collections across the country, including the Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale each fall in Cody. He’s listed in Who’s Who in the American West and Who’s Who in America, and his work has been featured in many magazines and journals.

During the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration 2003 – 2006, the collection, which then numbered 70 paintings, traveled to seven museums across the country. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center is pleased to be the first venue to exhibit the finished collection.

A specific schedule will be finalized soon. Read more about the exhibition at bbhc.org/exhibitions/charlesFritz.cfm.

Start any journey into the American West at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, currently operating its winter schedule, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday; closed Monday through Wednesday. Beginning April 1, the center will open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily. Devoted to western cultural and natural history, the center is comprised of the Buffalo Bill Museum, Whitney Gallery of Western Art, Plains Indian Museum, Cody Firearms Museum, Draper Museum of Natural History, and McCracken Research Library. For general information, visit www.bbhc.org or call 307.587.4771.