Travel Like Buffalo Bill: The Historic Occidental Hotel In Buffalo, Wyoming

After nearly a month on the road in a packed minivan with a four year old and a baby still a few months from his first birthday, you tend to have stopped looking for the new and exciting. In fact, you really get focused on the goal of simply getting home. But then, you run across places like the Big Horn Mountains, Powder River Pass, the Occidental Hotel and Buffalo, Wyoming.

What starts to happen at this point is the planning process for your next road trip. You start to form a plan that will not take you over 13,000 kilometres next time but will focus more on one general area. Buffalo is just one of many towns in the South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana area that have very successfully reinvented themselves as tourist towns.

I’m not so into American history, especially the ‘Wild West’, mostly because I truly believe it has been sensationalized long past the point of reality. However, when you’re traveling through this area that’s a perfect mix of mountains, plains and even a little desert, you can’t help but take a mental journey back to a dangerous but simpler time.

Occidental Hotel in Buffalo, Wyoming Photo Gallery

Historic Occidental Hotel

It turns out, we could have rented a room at the Occidental Hotel for less money than we spent for a not very historic hotel room in Cody, Wyoming the night before. We didn’t come to this realization until after we’d gotten home and looked into things a little more. Anyway, we had reservations at the Devil’s Tower KOA for that evening.

The most expensive room in the hotel is the Bordello at $250 per night in the summer and $165 during winter months. All the rooms are different and themed in some historic way. Some rooms can be had for as low as $110 per night in the summer or $80 in the winter. The problem would be availability and it’s best (necessary?) to reserve ahead of time.

The Occidental Hotel in Buffalo, Wyoming is 135 years old. Yet, it was destined to not live past 1997. That year, when it was slated to be torn down, it was bought in the nick of time. Dawn Wexo bought and restored the gem.

According to the hotel’s official website, restoration was not as difficult as expected. The Occidental was run by a Margaret Smith for 58 years from 1918 to 1976. During that time, Smith certainly maintained and upgraded the hotel. However, there were never any major tear-downs and mostly the old was covered up with the new. Furnishings were replaced but the old were stored in the attic and basement instead of being scrapped.

Even though the roof was leaking and had collapsed in some spots by 1997, the pieces of the puzzle in recreating the original hotel were actually on site.

The Occidental Hotel is now owned by David and Jackie Stewart. Along with the hotel, there is the attached saloon along with The Virginian Restaurant and the Busy Bee Cafe. Even if you’re not able to spend the night, as it was for us, you must stop in for a meal or even just a drink. And, you must stroll through the lobby of the hotel. The history screams at you and you really could imagine yourself back in time a century of so.

Buffalo, Wyoming

If you’re coming from the west, say from Cody or Yellowstone National Park, chances are your vehicle and your nerves are going to need a break by the time you get to Buffalo, anyway. From the west, the ‘least dangerous’ route is via highway 16 through Powder River Pass. The summit of the pass has a pullout area with a sign signifying you’re at 9,666 feet above sea level.

Buffalo is at the junction of Interstate 25 and the cross country Interstate 90. The county seat for Johnson County, Buffalo has a population of 4,600, a decent sized place for this uncrowded part of the continent.

Besides the Occidental Hotel, the Sports Lure Store is a must. The store is just down Main Street from the hotel, across Clear Creek. The store has everything hunting, fishing, hiking and, well, everything you need for life outdoors.

As for Clear Creek, you will find very large trout for the very little water that runs down it. At the bridge between the Sports Lure and the Occidental, there is actually a little vending machine that gives out fish pellets for feeding the trout. Not sure if it was time of day or the oppressive heat, but they weren’t interested in that form of food.