Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum

100 Fort Street in Buffalo (307) 684-9331 www.jimgatchell.com

In 1900, as the western frontier period was drawing to a close, Jim Gatchell opened a little drugstore in Buffalo, Wyoming. His customers included famous army scouts, cowboys, lawmen and cattle barons. He was also a trusted friend of the region’s Native Americans, many of whom fought at the Battle of the Little Big Horn and who called Gatchell a “Great Medicine Man.” For more than 50 years, Gatchell cherished these friendships. In turn, the old timers presented him with the priceless artifacts of a vanishing era. From this grassroots beginning in a crowded drugstore, the Jim Gatchell Museum today houses one of the most historically significant collections in the Rocky Mountain West.

Buffalo, Wyoming has been called the crucible of the American Frontier. More than a century ago, many of the pivotal events in the history of the west took place within 30 miles of here. Near the center of town, the Jim Gatchell Museum lends evidence to that time when this country was neither so tame nor so friendly. Scenes from the Wagon Box Fight, the Johnson County Cattle War and Buffalo’s Main Street from the 1800s are depicted in detailed dioramas in the museum’s main building.

The museum offers a large collection of American Indian artifacts, along with memorabilia from the Bozeman Trail and the Johnson County Cattle War of 1892. Mingled with the legends of Calamity Jane, Weasel Bear, Tom Horn, Red Cloud, Captain Fetterman and Portuguese Phillips is an extensive frontier guns collection, saddles of men who once rode the open range and items passed down through the families of pioneers who settled “in” and then “settled” the Powder River Region.

Museum visitors can view beadwork of Native Americans, relax outside near the restored western wagons, and meet the past face-to-face by viewing over 800 photographs of people who made history.

The Jim Gatchell Museum of the West is nestled near the tall pines at the corner of Main and Fort Streets overlooking historic downtown Buffalo. The museum is contained on four levels within two buildings: the main museum built in 1956 houses the original collection and the Carnegie Building built in 1909 is home to traveling displays, educational programs, children’s hands on exhibits and the museum’s gift store. It is open from mid-April through December 24.

Reprinted from museum brochure.