Buffalo Bill Cody Loved The Sheridan Inn So Much, He Held Auditions For His ‘Wild West' Show There

It paints a wild scene at the Sheridan Inn of the late 1800s. Horses mid-gallop, a cowboy with lasso mid-twirl, Indians huddled to one side whispering and a woman riding sidesaddle, who may fall at any moment. Meanwhile, military men, fashionable ladies, and an old grandfather seated with a baby on his knee look on, all bemused.

The scene is captured in a painting that hangs on the first landing of the stairs that lead to the 22 refurbished guest rooms at the historic Sheridan Inn. It’s one of the first things guests see as they climb the stairs to their rooms, and it invites the eye each time one passes by.

Study the painting long enough, and there’s actually one point of cool and calm, a little right of center.

It’s the tall man, leaning nonchalantly against a post on the Sheridan Inn’s front porch, a hat in one hand and a drink of what is no doubt whiskey in the other.

It is Buffalo Bill Cody himself, poised to step down the stairs into a melee of auditioning cowboys and Indians.

A half smile plays about his lips. If all the world’s a stage, and the people only players, Buffalo Bill Cody seems to know it best of them all. 

The painting depicts what was once a familiar scene in Sheridan when the hotel opened in 1893.

While Buffalo Bill Cody managed the inn, he often held auditions for his “Wild West” show — which had 500-some performers at its height — at the Sheridan Inn. He would sit on the front porch to watch the acts, which were performed on the front lawn — or to judge from the painting, the front dirt, which shows no green grass growing anywhere. 

“If (Buffalo Bill) found someone he liked for the ‘Wild West’ show, he would get on his horse and ride through the front door, right through the bar and buy a round of drinks,” Michael Dykhorst told Cowboy State Daily during an informal tour of the inn and its many historical artifacts.

Dykhorst loves the history of the Sheridan Inn, and it’s why he works there.

“I don’t know, it just calls me to work here,” he said.

Renovations Are Ongoing But History Remains

The desk Dykhorst works behind is still the inn’s original, as are its beams, its stony fireplace and the mailbox.

In the next-door restaurant, which is still closed, the original bar that was donated by Queen Victoria herself still stands, awaiting guests and ghosts of the West to raise a new toast to history. The saloon housing the bar is still closed, but hotel employees told guests staying at the inn that a restaurant is “coming soon.”

The hotel is already getting a nice facelift from its new owners. New carpet has been laid and fresh paint applied to walls. The dance floor has been refinished, too, and there’s a new sound system.

Everything historic, though, is being carefully preserved.

That includes antique windows that still work by the original, and quite ancient, pulley system. Guests are told not to open these windows, lest they break. Parts aren’t made for them anymore, which makes them difficult and expensive to repair. 

Inside the old ballroom, which now hosts tables and chairs instead of dancers, the old wooden ribs and “torques” — metal pieces that look like giant rivets — are fixed every few feet along the walls and ceiling, just like the ribs of a ship.

This construction makes the space quite solid, Cowboy State Daily was told by one of the hotel’s employees. If the building were ever to roll, everything would remain intact thanks to that construction.

The overall inn, modeled after a Scottish inn its architect Thomas Kimball had particularly liked, looks much the same as when it was first built.

There are big plans for the Sheridan Inn, employees told guests staying at the inn on more than one occasion. But the owners were not yet ready to publicize them when Cowboy State Daily contacted them. 

A grand opening is planned at a date yet to be determined, and more plans may be revealed then. 

History In Every Room

Buffalo Bill Cody tapped some of the leading figures of the legendary West for his popular show. These ranged from Geronimo and Sitting Bull — the latter just for one season — to Wild Bill Hickok, Kit Carson, Montana Frank, the Esquival Brothers and more. 

Each of the Sheridan Inn’s refurbished rooms is a window on this history, dedicated to a famous figure associated with Buffalo Bill Cody and his “Wild West” show. Care has been taken to display the history of each room’s namesake from furnishings to art and artifacts.

All of that creates an experience where a guest of the right mind can be enveloped by the legendary Wyoming history that is also the iconic history of the American West.

A clawfoot tub and elegant porcelain sink in the bathroom just adds to the effect that one is stepping back in time — though both offer all the modern amenities a guest of today would expect. 

Choices for your window on history range from dime store novelist Ned Buntline, who helped create the Buffalo Bill Cody legend to sure-shot Annie Oakley, an ambidextrous cowgirl who could even hit targets that were placed behind her, seemingly with ease.

There’s also a room dedicated to Black Elk, a Lakota medicine man who was perhaps not as famous in his day as he is now. Black Elk’s interests were not like many of the performers. He wasn’t interested in fame or fortune. He wanted to learn about the white man. And he wanted to find some way to help his people. 

There are also rooms dedicated to Queen Victoria, Teddy Roosevelt and to Buffalo Bill.

There are no wrong choices here.

Regardless of which room guests choose, they will sleep with a legend wrapped all around them, and they cannot help but think about how America was shaped while in these rooms that offer a glimpse into the life and times of long ago.

Chow Time Then And Now

All of Buffalo Bill Cody’s many performers and their family members were fed hot meals three times a day during the Wild West shows from cooking ranges that were 20 feet long.

The 500-some performers traveled as many as 11,000 miles in 200 days, putting on 341 shows in more than 130 cities — a logistical feat that amazed even military men of the day. The show provided its own electricity and its own firefighting force, as well as taking along draft horses and bison and many other creatures.

Guests at the inn today, however, are fed a more modern continental fare, ranging from homemade cheesy frittatas to yogurt or milk and cereal. Coffee is plentiful — as is sunshine through the front porch windows — and the breakfast hall feels as cheerful as Miss Kate, the inn’s housekeeper and hostess for six decades.

Happily Haunted

Speaking of Miss Kate, there are some who say her spirit still inhabits the Sheridan Inn today, Dkyhorst among them.

He has this story to tell about his own personal encounter with the inn’s ghostly caretaker.

“So, I was checking in a couple one night,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “And right after that, as I was doing something else and I could hear them walking up the stairs, which are very creaky. And then, (after they’d gone) I heard a woman’s voice just behind the front desk.”

“Just two?” Dykhorst heard the woman say, sharply and clear as a bell.

“And then I heard the keys rattle,” he said. “But there were no keys behind the desk or anything.”

Nor was there anyone standing in front of or behind the desk. Dykhorst was the only person there. 

At first, it creeped Dkyhorst out a little, he admits. But then he thought about Miss Kate.

“She was always protecting the inn,” he said. “She would often be found on the floor, like fixing carpets, the bedding, the sheets and all that stuff.”

Miss Kate also made most of the bedding and pillowcases herself by hand, and she grew fresh flowers to place on all the dining room tables. 

After her death, Miss Kate’s ashes were placed, at her request, in the third floor room where she had stayed when she was the inn’s hostess and night watchman back in the day.

Some who have stayed on the third floor report still hearing the whistle that once advised guests to blow out their candles and go to sleep. Miss Kate was known to check personally that all the candles had been properly blown out each night before going to bed herself. 

“When I think about Miss Kate like that, I know she’s protecting the inn, and she’s the overseer of it,” Dykhorst said. “She wants it to succeed.”

If you go

The Sheridan Inn, 856 Broadway St. in Sheridan, Wyoming, offers 22 rooms, each steeped in the history of the iconic Wild West. There are at this time no snacks or drinks available in the inn after hours, so it’s wise to bring a few of your own. Guests checking in after 10 p.m. will obtain their keys from the nearby Best Western, which also serves as the point of contact should any emergencies arise in the night. The Inn is a great headquarters for Sheridan activities, being centrally located to many adventures — breweries, restaurants, Western shops, and an intriguing farmers market at Landon’s Greenhouse. The Brinton Museum is not far, and offers a wide window of its own that looks onto our legendary past.

Contact Renée Jean at Renee@CowboyStateDaily.com