Scout’s Rest
View of the barn
Our last stop on our vacation was in North Platte, Nebraska. We stayed the night there, and early the next morning, we visited the home of William F Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill. Cody was a scout for the army, buffalo hunter, and pony express rider, but he is best known for his “Wild West Show”, a traveling performance depicting Indian battles, pony express rides, buffalo hunts, and other elements of frontier life.
The cast was filled with Native Americans, real buffalo, sharpshooters, and lots of horses, and was a great success starting in 1883 and traveling around the country and Europe for 30 years. In the mid-1880s, Cody purchased 4000 acres of land near North Platte, Nebraska, and proceeded to build a grand mansion and large barn.
House
Barn
He called his new place “Scout’s Rest Ranch”.
First we toured the barn:
Painted white on the interior, it was very bright and spacious.
Hallway between horse stalls
Stalls for the ranch horses
Horse tack
Covered wagon
Room for Blacksmith
Up above was the hayloft. Here, a summer’s hay would have been stacked high.
Hayloft
The tall row of feed chutes all led to the horses stalls below, so the hay could be fed without carrying it downstairs.
Next, we toured the house.
Front of the house
decorative wood trim
View from the porch looking out at the barn
The house was built in 1886 at a cost of $3900.
Front screen door
Once it was furnished with the best carpets and furniture money could buy, the total cost was brought up to $6000.
Piano in the parlor
Irma's bedroom (daughter)
Like many wealthy people of their day, William Cody and his wife Louisa, had separate bedrooms.
Louisa's bedroom
William's bedroom
When the house was completed, William and Louisa planned on retiring there soon with William becoming a “gentleman farmer”. But that was not to be.
Although the Wild West Show made him very wealthy, he lost it all due to failed financial investments. In 1911, he was forced to sell the ranch for $100,000, most of which went to pay off creditors. He went bankrupt in 1913. In the last years of his life he worked for various traveling circuses. In 1917, he died broke at his sister’s home in Cody, Wyoming of kidney failure.
In 1978, Scout’s Rest was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
If you would like to learn more about William F Cody, you can visit his archive website HERE.
For the official Scout’s Rest website, click HERE.
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I love it and could live there in a hoof-beat, pardon the pun. The barn is great painted white inside because it give you so much light BUT I am sure it would not look that pretty for long with livestock actually living there. I also didn’t think the barn was all that big until I saw Harland in the loft. Holey cow! It is so sad to think he lost it all. Thank you for the great pics what a nice vacation.
Enjoyed the pictures and history lesson. Yes, sad he lost everything.
Now that’s my kind of hay rack! What a neat place…and I agree with Tina’s comment about the white barn. We whitewash every so often, and it looks great…for a short while! Then it quickly looks like a barn that is used for animals who poop whenever and wherever they please. 🙂
Fascinating story! From the outside, I like the barn better than the house. 😉 Thanks for the tour.
Such a wonderful post. love everything about the place. Those beds are sooo neat. And the barn is fantastic. Just looking at the house from outside had to make you so curious.
Your story and photos are terrific! It’s been awhile since I was at Scout’s Rest Ranch so it was nice to see it and to have the photos to refer to from time to time.
I have two small corrections. Buffalo Bill died at his sister’s house in DENVER, Colorado, not Cody. Also, he didn’t lose everything – he still had some ownership in the Irma Hotel and owned the TE Ranch, both in Cody.
Thanks Lynn for the corrections. Surprisingly, I had a hard time finding some details about his life.