Downtown Buffalo you will find the Occidental Hotel. As far back as 1880, in the rip roaring days of early Wyoming The Occidental Hotel was known as the place to stay in northern Wyoming.
The Occidental Hotel was first established in a tent in 1879, just three years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
In 1880 the first actual building for the hotel was constructed of logs and the building was formally called the Occidental Hotel (meaning "Western" Hotel.)
For travelers along the Bozeman Trail, the Occidental was an oasis where a weary pilgrim was sure to fine a soft bed and a friendly welcome.
The brick building you see today was constructed between 1901 and 1910. The Hotel had many famous guests including Calamity Jane, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, a young Teddy Roosevelt, Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.
One of its early guests was Owen Wister, he was just a young man traveling out west for his health. He kept his eyes and ears open. Years later, some of the cowboys and gunslingers Wister observed in the Occidental Saloon found their way into the most famous Western novel ever written, "The Virginian."
The year after Wister published the novel, the Occidental started printing a slogan on its letter paper; "Where the Virginian Got His Man." There are some people who are sure the famous shoot-out in "
The Virginian" - the first "walk-down" in Western literature - occurred in front of the Occidental Hotel.The hotel has recently under gone $1.6 million historic restoration that began in 1997 and was completed in 2008. The rooms are beautifully decorated with many antiques in evidence.
The saloon looks pretty much as it did in the early days. A great place to sit and have a beer!!
We made a stop at the Big Horn Meat Cutting Co. They have some of the most wonderful smoked pork chops you have ever tasted!
Last night we went to the Winchester Restaurant for dinner. The food there is out of this world, the prime rib and Oysters Rockefeller were outstanding.
From here we head to South Dakota and Custer National Park.
More on that later...
Love to all,
Candy and Johnny
