The Mormon Chapel and Temple

24 Jul 2010--For the 3 weeks or so that we have been here, we had seen a sign on the main road advertising the Cody Murals, but didn't really know what it was about or where it was. After looking at the finer print, we realized it had something to do with the Mormons and it was not far from where we were, so we decided to go over and check it out.

We ended spending a couple hours at a Mormon Chapel, where they give small tours of their displays that explain some of the Mormon experience. One room had paintings that tell the story of Mormons first coming to Wyoming, and then the main entrance hall that has a circular dome that someone painted the Mormon story, beginning with Joseph Smith receiving the Mormon tablets. If I got it right, those became the founding documents for their Book of Mormon.



"Sister Smith" introduced herself and took Cathy and I into the Wyoming room. Sister Smith was a wealth of knowledge as she took us around, not only explaining the different pictures, but answering all my questions graciously. I was in hog heaven, because as I will explain shortly, I mostly wanted to know why I couldn't go into the Temple in Salt Lake City when I go there in a week or so.

She started by explaining that once the Mormons were settled in Utah in the 1840s, they became famous for their colonizing skills. With that in mind, the Governor and Secretary of State of Wyoming went to Utah in 1900 asking for some Mormon families to come to the Cody area of Wyoming to build a canal for them and to colonize the area.

This is a map of their trek to Wyoming.

There were more pics, but in a nutshell these 100 families basically ran out of money after about 2 years, prayed to God for help, and they believe the railraod people offering them money to help build a railraod was "Manna" from heaven answering their prayers. That's the railroad in the background.

This pic displays the finishing of the canal in 1904. Now none of this may interest you, but she told us that there are about 8-10 towns around here in northern Wyoming that are about 90%Mormon, and the city of Cody was probably 15%. I didn't realize any of that, so I was quite interested.

And now the mural. This is really quite pretty, but because it was painted in a dome I couldn't get the big picture for you.

The dome is separated into 8 parts, divided by the 8 men who were basically their founding fathers, starting with Joseph Smith, to Brigham Young, etc. The 2nd picture depicts Joseph Smith, in 1827, receiving the tablets from a heavenly messenger named "Moroni".

This 1st pic shows the miracle of the seagulls. After hoardes of crickets descended on their fields, the prophets (their priests) prayed for God's help, and were not forsaken. Thousands of seagulls appeared and gorged on the crickets, saving the crops for the believers. The 2nd pic depicts the mob in Illinois dragging Joseph Smith and his brother from the jail they were being held in. They were killed by the mob in 1844.

In 1847, after years and years of Mormons being persecuted in other areas, Brigham Young decided on Salt Lake City as the final home of the Mormons. In 1857 the Federal Government heard rumors of a Mormon rebellion and sent troops to crush it (This is the 1st recorded incident of the government flying off the handle and acting before they had all the facts! haha). Young decided they were through running and prepared to defend their settlements in Salt Lake. After that was over, in 1853 they decided to build the Great Salt Lake Temple, which took 40 years to finish. A gold-covered statue of Moroni stands on the highest spire of the temple.

As you leave the dome area, what is considered the final picture is one titled "Lest We Forget", a tribute to the thousands of pioneers and martyrs of the Mormon faith.

So now for why I won't be able to go into the Temple in Salt Lake City. Sister Smith explained that for about the 1st 2 months after a Temple is built it would be open to the public, but once it is consecrated that is no longer the case. Not only can non-believers not go into a consecrated Temple, but even their Mormon kids can't go in. Mormons have chapels and Temples. Anyone can go into a chapel, but only those recommended by their state president and bishop can gain entry to the Temples. Certain rites are performed in Temples, like marriage, that are usually not performed in a chapel, the only exception being if a Temple is too far away. Generally, their boys would be recommended into the Temple when they are around 18-19 years of age, when they commit to go on their 1st mission. For girls it is usually around 21 yrs old. I asked her why the difference, and she laughingly told me that the community hopes the girl will get married by then, at which time she would be recommended into the Temple through her husband. She said that if they are not married by then, they would generally commit to go on mission themselves, so they would be recommended into the Temple at that time.

Bottom line I guess is I either have to find a new, not-yet consecrated Temple or convert to Mormonism to get into their temples. I wonder which quest would take longer??? (Only kidding, Sister Helen!)

The Buffalo Bill Historical Center

24 Jul 2010--Went to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center Wednesday and Thursday (this is Saturday), and on Thursday we also went to a Mormon Chapel...I will tell you about that in a separate posting.

The Buffalo Bill Center is really 5 different museums; The Plains Indian Museum, The Draper Museum of Natural History (also called The Greater Yellowstone Museum), The Whitney Gallery of Western Art, The Cody Firearms Museum, and The Buffalo Bill and the American West Museum. There is so much to see here that they actually give you 2 days to view everything on one entry fee.


Because we have seen a lot of this stuff before, some of it was a bit repetitive, but interesting nonetheless. I have tried to post pics of some things we haven't seen before. I couldn't possibly post all the pics I took,..I would still be loading them if I tried!

A couple things in the the Indian Museum that was interesting was that they used elk teeth to adorn their women's/girl's dresses, and this was a sign of how successful the husband was.

These are some kid's toys.

And they told us that before they had horses, which were brought to America by the Spanish, the Indians used dogs to carry their belongings when they were travelling. They said that a good sized dog could cart up to 75 pounds of goods. So while had dogs as pets, they also put them to work.

The Greater Yellowstone Museum covered the whole area encompassed within the white lines on the map below. Cathy and I were in the Bighorn Mountains, on the right side of the map, the other day when we saw the wild horses.

This would be a great museum for kids because they have all the stuffed animals from mountain goats to moose to grizzlies to badgers...! I am still on the lookout for Moose in Yellowstone, so the next time we go to the park that is what we will be concentrating on.

Here is the back paw print of a Grizzly, with my hand in it for a frame of reference as to how big it really is. And then those are skulls of a Black bear (left) and a Grizzly bear (right)...markedly different.

Cathy was calling to me!

And, of course, my favorites, the Prairie Dogs.

Back in Colorado I showed you a picture of a Burrowing Owl, which often use the tunnels in the ground dug by Prairie Dogs. On the right here I am able to show you just how small these owls are. That is a stuffed one laying on it's back, and as you can see it is no bigger than my hand. They are also very cute.

In the Whitney Gallery they had everything from sculptures to paintings. For those of you that were in the military, doesn't the Indian look like he is teaching new trainees how to march properly??? haha

I love the colors in these cowboy paintings, and then that is a painting of the Grand Canyon.

The Firearms Museum had a total of 2500 firearms over 2 floors of displays. Those are the guns used by "Hoss Cartwright" and "Batt Masterson" in their TV shows.

Don't you love the door knob!?

They had everything from military weapons to the "tommy" gun, every rifle type you could think of and every pistol along with them. Cathy's father Ed and uncle Robert would love this place.

The biggest of the museums was the one about Buffalo Bill and the American West. Of course, you have to start with the buffalo, or bison if you want to call it that.

This is a coach they used to use to get travellers around Yellowstone before cars made it big. It was actually in the West Thumb area of Yellowstone National Park, in 1908, that the biggest stagecoach robbery in US history happened. 17 of these coaches, with a total of 174 passengers, were robbed of $2094.00...the robbers were never caught. ( This info may come in handy if you are ever on Jeopardy!)

Here is a saddle and spurs. The saddle weighs 105 pounds

Info on a chuck wagon.

Bull-dogging is when they jump from the horse down on a steer and wrestle him to the ground. I don't know if I swallow the "up to 30%" figure???!!

This is the actual stagecoach used by Buffalo Bill all over the world in his show.

To his credit, Buffalo Bill appears to have been light years ahead of his contemporaries on the subject of Indians and women. I feel like I would have liked him! haha

Some of the posters advertising his shows around the world. Posters were the primary means of advertising in those days. You can see from the posters that he travelled far and wide, whether it be the Far East or Europe, he was there. All this travelling made him the most well-known American of his time.

There was a section of the museum set aside for western furniture and the like. This day bed is interesting, and the "purple sage smoking jacket ensemble" just kills me!

I don't know if anyone else had one, but I know my family had a hockey game when we were kids that resembled this. But notice as you get closer that the players are Indians and Army people.

I will leave you here with 2 quick videos. The first shows the difference between a human heartbeat, an active bear heartbeat, and the heartbeat of a bear in hybernation.

And this just cracked me up. At the main entrance hall of the museums, performers from the Cody Cattle Company Dinner Show were trying to drum up some business. Yippy, Yi, Yeah!