The Buffalo Bill Hotel: Cody’s Grand Hotel that Almost Happened

“Just imagine a five-story large structure on the lot where Gradient Mountain Sports sits [next to Zapata’s].” Robyn Cutter with the Park County Archives said. That’s what almost happened in the late 1920s with plans to build the Buffalo Bill Hotel.

Every week, Robyn Cutter processes newspaper articles. Each day she finds exciting puzzle pieces about the Cody business community and the people who have lived here. “The story about the attempt to build the Buffalo Bill Hotel is worth hearing.”

 As she pieced together the story, she commented, “If it had been built, the overall streetscape of Cody’s downtown would have been considerably different today.”

More Rooms Needed

With automobiles becoming increasingly popular in the late 1920s, Cody’s hotels were bursting at the seams in summer. More rooms were needed.

An article in the Cody Enterprise from July 1928 shares the need for more hotel rooms.

“With the development of Cody during the last 18 months, it has been impossible for the present hotels, The Irma and The Chamberlin, to accommodate those who wished accommodations here. The Irma just added a twenty-room annex this spring, which helped in a small way to meet the housing situation, and at the Chamberlin every effort has been made to make more rooms available for visitors The tourist business each summer demands extra hotel service and to meet this situation and be able to take care of visitors to Cody at rates which are comparable to those charged in other cities, it is essential that there be more competition in the hotel business and greater facilities to offer the traveling public.

The hotel situation has given Cody a black eye for several years. Traveling men claim it impossible to secure positive reservations, and have to plan their trips so as to stop elsewhere at night if possible. Tourists and oil men claim the rates charged at some of the local hotels are highway robbery, and it seems that the only solution of the situation is to be the building of a hotel here of sufficient size to meet the housing needs of the town, and guarantee a real hotel service to those who visit or have business to transact here.”

Local businessmen decided to invest, and the 75-foot frontage on Sheridan was purchased. Plans were drawn up to build the Buffalo Bill Hotel. A description from a 1928 Cody Enterprise article shares the plans for the grand hotel that would have dominated downtown.

“According to the plans, the ground floor will take care of the large lobby and general offices, a dining room and a private dining room for special lunches and teas, six store rooms and a large coffee room which will be located on the corner. The second floor, or mezzanine floor, will have ten office suites, two rooms each, besides a ladies’ parlor and bridge room. There will be 95 splendid all outside rooms on the third, fourth and fifth floors, with a large outside balcony porch on the third floor.

The materials used in the hotel will be black cindered tile, steel and concrete, cream stucco finish, red Spanish tile trim, with Western and Spanish style of architecture.”

The plans included the ability to close off part of the hotel in the winter when rooms were not in demand.

Old Buildings Removed

By March of 1929, two original buildings in Cody were demolished.

“The old landmark is being destroyed for the hotel site. With the preliminary work started on what may develop into a new hotel for Cody, the town is losing one of its old landmarks, the building located on Sheridan Ave and 4th [now 14th St], most recently occupied by the Cody Second Hand Store, and which during Cody’s early days was used by Poker Nell as a saloon and gambling establishment.

From some of the old timers of Cody the Enterprise editor gathers the information that this building was constructed in the year 1901, early in the year, at a time when the railroad men came along many gentlemen and ladies of fortune with their saloon and roulette tables. In opening her establishment, Poker Nell at first was located in a large tent, very much the size and shape of the building which is being torn down. Later in the year, to make the place more comfortable and usable, the sides were walled up and finally a roof placed over the tent.”

The inside of the casino was one of the most pretentious in the West at that time. Along one side of the long room were bar fixtures, while faro banks, roulette wheels, and poker tables were placed around the room. Poker Nell, an experienced and hardened character, was as clever with the cards as she was a manager. She usually tended the faro bank or operated one of the other gambling devices. Her chief lieutenant at that time was Harry Bruce, whom she afterward married and who, not many years ago, was sent to prison to serve a life sentence for the shooting of a man over a card table at Kirby, Wyoming.

The building immediately east of the old gambling casino was first used as a butcher shop. It was also built in 1901 and later operated by John Dyer under the firm Maverick Meat Market. Dyer’s methods of obtaining cattle were not always the most scrupulous, with the result that the sheriff finally caught up with him. The business was turned over to A. D. Larson, a young man who had just arrived in the Cody community.

A Start and a Quick End

Groundbreaking took place on March 27, 1929, with Miss Jane Garlow (Granddaughter of Buffalo Bill) removing the first shovel full of dirt. Work started but came to an abrupt halt in May 1929 when there was no payroll money to pay workers. The basement had nearly been completed.

A large pile of dirt was apparently left as a “monument” to the non-existent hotel and was finally removed in December 1930.

The rest of the story came out in the Cody Enterprise in June 1931.

“The truth comes out. People in Cody will be interested to know that the guiding genius of the General Surety Company of Montana, which went into the hands of a receiver last week, is no other than Howard J. Doss, the young financial wizard who was to build Cody’s new hotel. According to a story in the Billings Gazette, Doss had piled up liabilities of $323,401.20 for the General Surety Company, while all the assets which could be listed amounted to $288,039. Prior to coming to Cody and while in Cody, Doss was connected with a Casper brokerage house which went haywire, and his activities here on the financing end of the New Cody Hotel was anything but above board.”

While the Buffalo Bill Hotel never came to fruition, it is still a testament to how this town has always worked together to find solutions to its challenges.

The history of Cody is so interesting. You can take any unassuming corner in town and find a rich story that happened there.

If you’re interested in learning more about the history of a location in town or have some “puzzle pieces” from your family’s history in Cody, contact the Park County Archives located in the Cody Library.

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