Under the Gun Again: Cody’s Giant Winchester Rides for the 250th

The giant Winchester that has watched over downtown Cody since the bicentennial nearly came off its roof this winter. Instead of letting it go, the Darby family is putting it back in the parade, exactly 50 years after it first rolled down Sheridan Avenue with John Wayne.

If you’ve driven down Sheridan Avenue lately and felt like something was missing, you weren’t imagining it. The giant Winchester rifle that has loomed over the rooftop next to the Irma Hotel for half a century quietly disappeared this spring.

It’s coming back. And before it returns to its perch, it’s going to travel down the street it first traveled in 1976. Entering it into the parade was not in the plans initially, but a hard winter, capped by a spring windstorm, said otherwise.

The Winter That Nearly Took It Down

Fifty Cody winters add up. This past one was especially hard on the gun. Mike Darby, who owns both the Irma and the Winchester replica, says the windstorms left it in rough enough shape that it was at real risk of coming off the building, and a final spring storm nearly finished the job.

Dusty Creed, who works for the Irma, went up to check the roof to find the gun in terrible shape. Taking photos, he showed them to Mike Darby. “That bastard was going to come down,” Darby said about it when he saw the condition it was in. “It was best that came down in a controlled manner.”

Creed found the answer in Summit Crane Services, owned by Hank Whitelock, who asked when they’d like it taken down. The answer was, “yesterday.” An hour later, they showed up, and with the help of two of his employees, Whitelock had the 42-foot-10-inch Winchester down safely. That’s well past the 30 feet it’s often referred to, but what it measured at. Another good windstorm could very well have taken it down. “We were lucky to have caught it in time,” Darby said.

That could have been the end of the story. When the conversation turned to taking it down for good, it was Mike’s father, John Darby, who suggested a different path: don’t just remove it; fix it up and put it back in the parade.

Gallery of images courtesy of Dusty Creed (Swipe to see more):

Restoration of the Damage

Now in charge of the restoration, Creed got a good look at the gun. The barrel and stock had twisted in the wind. Parts of the plywood were disintegrating, and a bird had set up house at the end of the barrel. The action was beyond repair and needed to be completely rebuilt.

The next question, where to find a location for the restoration work, was answered by Big Horn Proline in Powell, which offered the use of its shop and flatbeds.

It took 30 hours of sanding and fiberglass work to get it back in shape. The barrel that had twisted in the wind was straightened as best as possible, but the stock would take more work to fix than time allowed. Steel was added for extra stability at the most vulnerable points.

1976 Details Emerged

About this time, photos surfaced of the gun. The City of Cody shared 1976 parade photos from the Park County Archives on their social media page, unknowingly helping with the restoration. Then, Cowboy State Daily ran its story on the disappearing Winchester last week with more photos from the 1976 parade, showing exactly what the gun looked like in its first life.

The gun was painted black when it came down from the roof, but the photos let Creed paint it closer to its original color. In addition, the medallion that was shown in the photo was missing. They’re working to get a medallion done in time for the parades on the 3rd and 4th.

A few things had drifted over fifty years. During the restoration, it was clear that various work had been done over the years. Working from those pictures, the Darbys are bringing it back as close to the original as possible with the time constraints in mind.

Gallery of images courtesy of Dusty Creed (Swipe to see more):

A Bicentennial Original

The big gun was born for a parade. In 1976, as the country marked its 200th birthday, the Husky Oil Company, founded in Cody back in 1938, commissioned a 30-foot replica of a .30-30 Winchester for that summer’s Cody Stampede Parade. The theme that year was “Celebrating Winchester: The Gun That Won the West,” and the timing was perfect: the Fourth of July also marked the opening of the firearms museum at what’s now the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The grand marshal that year was about as Western as it gets: John Wayne himself who was also in the parade.

The gun, modeled on a 1968 Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill .30-30, made it a fitting tribute to Cody on the nation’s milestone. This was a limited-edition lever-action rifle and carbine chambered in .30-30 Winchester, produced exclusively for one year (1968) to honor Colonel William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and support the addition of the Buffalo Bill Museum in 1969.

A Bicentennial Original

The big gun was born for a parade. In 1976, as the country marked its 200th birthday, the Husky Oil Company, founded in Cody back in 1938, commissioned a 30-foot replica of a .30-30 Winchester for that summer’s Cody Stampede Parade. The theme that year was “Celebrating Winchester: The Gun That Won the West,” and the timing was perfect: the Fourth of July also marked the opening of the firearms museum at what’s now the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The grand marshal that year was about as Western as it gets: John Wayne himself, who rode the same float as the enormous rifle.

The gun, modeled on a 1968 Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill .30-30, made it a fitting tribute to Cody on the nation’s milestone. This was a limited-edition lever-action rifle and carbine chambered in .30-30 Winchester, produced exclusively for one year (1968) to honor Colonel William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and support the addition of the Buffalo Bill Museum in 1969.

Fifty Years on the Roof

After the parade, the gun was stored at the Husky refinery. Before long, it found a permanent home on the roof of Jack Skates’ store, Jack’s Sports & OK Hardware, right next door to the Irma. The shop took the obvious motto: “Everything Under the Gun.”

The storefront changed hands several times over the decades, and somewhere along the way, the temporary cardboard gave way to plywood. Through all of it, the gun stayed put. When the Irma Hotel bought the building in the 1990s, the Winchester came with it, at no extra charge.

For fifty years, it has been one of those landmarks locals stop seeing precisely because it’s always there. Visitors point. Kids ask about it. It’s as much a part of downtown as the Irma’s cherrywood bar.

A Different Ride This Time

In 1976, the float was dressed up. The low-cab semi pulling the gun was covered to look like a stagecoach, with the rifle riding on top. This year’s exact configuration is still up in the air. However, the plan is to have it ready for the Stampede parades. No matter what, it will be escorted by horses.

There’s a possibility of a chance for the public to have their photo op with the famous rifle after the parades. It’s a neat piece of symmetry: the gun debuted for America’s 200th and returns for the 250th.

Good for Another Fifty

Once the celebrations wrap up, the Winchester goes home. Darby expects to have it craned back onto the roof, better supported, and freshly restored sometime the first week in July. The hope is that it can make it another 50 years for the tricentennial.

Half a century ago, a parade float that wasn’t supposed to outlast the weekend became a Cody fixture. This summer, the family that’s currently its custodian decided it was worth saving. While not as a museum piece, but as exactly what it’s always been: the biggest gun in town, watching over Sheridan Avenue, ready for whoever’s looking up.

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📸Header image courtesy Park County Archives

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