- City/State: Buffalo, WY 82801
- Website: http://www.buffalowyo.com/
Buffalo Wyoming, considered the center of the spokes in navigating the Big Horn Mountains. Buffalo is without doubt the best departure point to access the Big Horn Mountains. The Bighorn National Forest boundary is but a stone’s throw from downtown Buffalo. Travel up the pass to the trail heads that lead you into the Cloud Peak National Wilderness Area. Take a day trip through the Crazy Woman Canyon, climb Bomber Mountain where a WW2 bomber still lies in pieces after a dark and stormy crash during the war. Fish the many streams and lakes, ski, horseback, hike, fish and hunt in the wonder of the Big Horn Mountains.
Buffalo is the hub of the history that defines the area. The Johnson County Cattle War was waged just out of town and the “Invaders” were ultimately incarcerated at the then US Calvary garrison Fort McKinney, now the Veterans’ Home of Wyoming.
Just 15 miles North of Buffalo is the National Historical site Fort Phil Kearny where 80 brave and foolish soldiers under the foolhardy Captain William J. Fetterman rode out on a bitter cold December day in 1866 where at the hands of thousands of Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors were wiped out to the last man at the hands of Chief Red Cloud and a young untested brave who would come to be known as Crazy Horse.
Today Buffalo is a bustling community with a lively and historically preserved main street and downtown. The famous Occidental Hotel sits on Clear Creek and invites all who pass through to stop, have a meal or belly up to the historic bar. You are even invited to tour the facility and stay the night in the same rooms that Bill Cody, Calamity Jane, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Teddy Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway and many others did… including a recent TV show about famous haunted places.
Take a tour of the incredible nationally recognized and award winning Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum. See how the Johnson County Cattle War played out, you decide who were the villains and who were the victims? The cattle barons or the rustlers and homesteaders?.
Each summer Buffalo presents “Longmire Days” in recognition of the popular television series “Longmire” which takes place in the fictional town of Durant Wyoming inspired by, you guessed it, Buffalo Wyoming. The “Sheriff Walt Longmire” series of novels are written by local author Craig Johnson.
Yes, Buffalo is the center of the hub, the gateway to “Life Along the Big Horns”.
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Last modified: January 20, 2022