Hotel Irma, Cody Wyoming

Rolled over the mountain pass east of Yellowstone as the snow plows cleared off the roads for one of the last times before winter closed it down. Along the slope of the old stinkwater river (now Shoshone) we found the moose, and drove on in to the town of Cody, Wyoming.


Looking for a place to stay we passed up some of the older places and the new chain motels and settled in at the Irma Hotel.


The Irma has a long history.* Built by Buffalo Bill Cody and named after his daughter Irma the hotel has seen a lot of history.


The Irma had a whole bunch of ghost wandering the halls and the dinning room and bar.

During the tourist season you couldn't have gotten a room here. It is a popular place during the summer, fact they have a "gunfight' every night on the street in front of the hotel.


I asked for one of the historical rooms and ended up in Irma's own room looking over the main street.


In the bar and dinning rooms the walls were covered with trophy heads from all sorts of places. One set of mountain sheep heads represented a "Super Slam"** shot by dude named Bob Dohse. Sounds like a Denny's breakfast menu doesn't it.



The food was fair, the ambiance was great, the coffee even better.


Most historic hotels and inns feel scrubbed or Disney-ish. Not this one. It was the real thing.

We hung out in Cody for three nights. Most times we ate at the Irma's dinning room and would sit with my son at Irma's own personal table next to the window on the street.


From the table the life of Cody wandered by. Hardly a tourist in the bunch this time of year. Across the street was the movie theater that opened at seven every evening to show one movie. If 6 people showed up they would run the movie. If not then you would have to wait or buy enough tickets to add up to six total.


From the table you could see the old cherry wood bar that Bill his own self drank at. To the right was portrait of Bill made by a shootist artist named Tom Frye with a pistol and bullets.


He should have signed his name with a BB gun.


Every once in while you got a reminder that the hunt was on.


But my favorite was the grizzly in the art gallery across the way. Every time the traffic light changed he would start running only to have to stop a few seconds later. At least that's the way it seemed after about three shots of Jack Daniels.

*: http://www.irmahotel.com/

**: http://www.wildsheep.org/about/history.htm