If you are traveling west toward Yellowstone National Park or maybe riding your Harley east toward Sturgis, SD or maybe going to meet the Mother Ship at Devil’s Tower, Buffalo, WY is a must stopover. There you’ll find the Occidental Hotel, which featured in the pages of Owen Wister’s The Virginian – the very first Western novel – and the location where the eponymous hero finally “gets his man”. The town has several historic markers related to the Johnson County War, as well as a superb statute of Nate D Champion’s “Last Run”, depicting the moment one of the heroes of the Johnson County War emerges from his burning cabin with all guns blazing.
The hotel originated in 1880 as a log building on the bank of a creek near the Bozeman Trail. Eventually, the log hotel was replaced by a fine brick building and then it was enlarged over time.
This was THE place to stay and lots of famous people spent time at the Occidental. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid would drift into town and stay in the room overlooking the sheriff’s office so they could watch the activity there. Teddy Roosevelt stayed here. General Phil Sheridan stayed here. Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, and Tom Horn stayed here as did President Herbert Hoover. Owen Wister visited the Occidental and wrote a major part of The Virginian – recognised as the very first Western novel – while staying in the balcony room overlooking Main street. The locals say that the town of Medicine Bow in the book is Buffalo.
The Occidental went into decline with the depression and then sank even deeper as highway motels sprang up. It finally became a local landmark as a bordello for several years and it endured it all. The hotel had only one manager for 58 years who carefully preserved everything. The building survived and, miraculously, most of the hotel’s grand furnishings were just carted down into the basement where they sat until 1997 when the hotel was reborn. The place was on its last legs and renovation took many years. It was only halfway renovated when we stayed here but it has progressed since then and today is a sight to behold.
Guests can stay in the Teddy Roosevelt suite, the General Sheridan room, the Owen Wister room and the Herbert Hoover suite, the Hole in the Wall room and the Madam’s Retreat plus some cowboy rooms. There are even some scribbled notes on the walls from the old bordello days.
Besides the hotel and the restored rooms, there is also a saloon. This hotel was a full-service operation — hotel, saloon, restaurant and barbershop. The saloon is well worth visiting even if you don’t stay at the hotel. There are bullet holes in the walls…real bullet holes. The current saloon and it’s furnishings date to 1908. It was a stand-up saloon, so the bar stools and tables are a more recent addition. The bar is twenty-five feet long and could accommodate all sorts of outlaws and lawmen. Butch and Sundance died in 1908 in Bolivia (maybe?) but who knows, maybe they had a farewell drink at the Occidental Saloon. Ernest Hemingway was a hotel guest, and he surely had a drink or two at the saloon and maybe a Cuban cigar.