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Cody, Jan. 1, 1901
Col. Cody heavily invested in the area. In addition to the Irma hotel, named after his daughter and pictured below,
his enterprises included the Cody
Trading Company, a livery stable and the Cody Enterprise. In addition, near Meeteetse he
purchased the Carter Ranch on the South Fork of the
Stinking Water (now the South Fork of the Shoshone) which he named the T E.
Irma Letterhead, undated.
As indicated by the letterhead, Cody's brother-in-law, Louis Decker, was general
manager of the hotel which opened in in 1902.
Irma Hotel, approx. 1910.
Lower Left, Irma Hotel, 1908, photo by F. J. Hiscock
The Irma was constructed by Cody in 1902 and
 was
designed by famed Nebraska architect Alfred Wilderman Woods. Although intended as a
luxury hotel, some guests were less than impressed. In 1916, Horace M. Albright (1890-1987) escorted
National Park System Director Stephen Tyng Mather (1867-1930) on a tour to Yellowstone. On the
first night of the tour, the Mather party stayed at the Irma. In his Creating the National Park Service:
the Missing Years, Horace M. Albright and Marian Albright Schenck, University of Oklahoma Press,
Norman, 1999, Albright gave an account of the stay. The dinner was a disaster, with bad food and terrible service.
Albright at the request of Director Mather checked the kitchen. "It was about the dirtiest, most
unsanitary place I had ever seen." According to Albright,
The rest of the evening turned out to be equally bad. First of all, Mrs.
Mather insisted on sitting up all night in the lobby after she discovered
"things crawling in the bed." Mather ordered a pillow and blankets for her,
saw to her comfort, and then disappeared back to the lice, bedbugs, or whatever.
He didn't last long there because when he opened the door to his room he found two
men asleep in his bed. Downstairs at the desk he demanded another room.
"there is no other room," said the clerk. "You'll just have to make your bedfellows move over."
Albright had a similar experience being awakened by a strang man crawling into his bed. As he lay awake listening to
the snores of his bedmate, he became aware of the "various bugs that had missed Mrs. Mather," and
thus moved to the floor.
Sage at entrance to Irma Hotel, 1906. Note shadow of upper porch
railing on the sidewalk.
porch
The Cody Meeteetse Thermopolis Stage Line offered stage service south out of Cody.
Additionally, there was weekly stage service to Painter in the Sunlight Basin to the northeast of Cody. By 1908 it was
proposed to use autostages for the trip to Meeteetse. In 1908, also, the Big Horn Development company purchased six seven-passenger
Rambler automobiles to provide transportation to Basin. In 1916, autostages were instituted to Yellowstone.
Much of the Town of Cody was constructed
by a friend of Cody from Buffalo, N. Y, Henry Montgomery Gerrans (1853-1939). Gerrans was
a director of the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo at which the
Wild West Show performed. The Buffalo, N. Y., influence on the Town of Cody is
perhaps also reflected in the name of three streets, Gerrans Ave., Bleistein Ave. and Rumsey Ave. George
Bleistein was also a director of the Exposition. The Rumsey family farm was
used as a site for the Exposition. Beck, Alger, George Bleistein, H. M. Gerrans, Bronson Rumsey, II, are all regarded as
the co-founders of the Town. Also moving to Cody from Buffalo, New York was Jacob M. "Jake" Schwoob
(1874-1932) who became a partner and manager of the
Cody Trading Company on the corner of 13th and Sheridan Ave.
Cody Trading Company, approx. 1911. Photo by A. G. Lucier
The building depicted burned in 1913 and was replaced by a new building on the same site. Schwoob became the first
treasuer of the Town of Cody. Two years later he was elected mayor. In 1905 he was elected to the State Senate and became president of
the Senate in 1911. When Wyoming introduced license plates in 1913, he was given license plate No. 1.
Jake Schwoob with hand on headlamp, license plate No. 1, approx. 1913
Next Page: Cody continued.
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