Cody, Wyoming, serves as a gateway to Yellowstone and American history

Cody, Wyoming, serves as a gateway to Yellowstone National Park, offering access to the park’s diverse wildlife and geothermal features such as Old Faithful. The region is characterized by its vast landscapes and abundant animal life, including bison, wolves, and bears.

Cody features several cultural and historical sites, including the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, which houses five Smithsonian-affiliated museums. These institutions cover topics ranging from the life of ‘Buffalo’ Bill Cody and the history of the Plains Indians to the American West through historic firearms and landscape paintings by artists like Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt.

Additionally, the area is home to the Heart Mountain WWII Interpretive Center. This Smithsonian Affiliate preserves the history of the more than 14,000 Japanese Americans who were interned in Wyoming following Pearl Harbor, maintaining some of the few remaining original relocation center buildings.