Occidental Hotel The Occidental Hotel is an important part of downtown Buffalo, Wyoming's Historic District. This is appropriate because the two grew together from a common start in 1879. Through the years, the Occidental building changed from its tent beginning to a log structure to wood frame and finally to the brick hotel we see today. In this same time period, Buffalo grew to a chartered City, the Johnson County Seat and an important civic and business center in the region. The number of first at the Occidental, along with the various offices it has housed, documents the Hotel's close association with its host community. The Occidental was Buffalo's first white child's birthplace, hotel, post office, County Commissioner's meeting place, hospital, bank, town hall, Western Union Office, polling place, court house, stagecoach and bus stop. Equally impressive are the names of some of the Occidental's more famous guests: Buffalo Bill Cody, General Sheridan, Teddy Roosevelt, General Crook, Owen Wister, and Calamity Jane. Much has been written about this historic
hotel over the years, especially in the Buffalo Bulletin newspaper
and various Western history publications, e.g., Old West, summer
1970. Special attention has been given to the frontier period, from
the excellent start-up by Charles and Jennie Buell on through a
series of ownership changes up to the turn of the century. Probably
the Occidental fact most widely known by the locals is the Hotel
was the setting where the Virginian "got his man" in Owen
Wister's western classic, The Virginian. |
