Buffalo, WY

Buffalo's Showplace: The Occidental Hotel

The residents of Buffalo, Wyo., (pop. 3,900) a former stagecoach stop on the Bozeman Trail, still celebrate their frontier past. Although the entire Main Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, townspeople point with the most pride to the block-long Occidental Hotel.

Founded in 1878 by Charles Buell, the Occidental was first built of logs and then brick in 1908. Homesteaders, cattle barons, and gunslingers such as Buffalo Bill Cody and Calamity Jane frequented the hotel’s saloon. When Wyoming’s economy foundered in the 1980s, however, the Occidental faced demolition.

“The Occidental was the hub of the town when I was growing up,” says Jim Dillinger, who attended weddings, anniversaries, graduations, and family reunions there.

Much later, Dillinger says his heart bled when he saw Main Street’s deserted hotels and restaurants. “I was praying for them (the buildings) to be saved,’’ says Dillinger, who once ran the New York General Store his grandfather had owned.

Then, Dawn and John Wexo bought the Occidental in 1997 to house their children’s publishing company, The Knowledge Co. They then decided to undertake a $750,000 restoration of the Occidental and use the remainder of the building as a full-service hotel with a bar and restaurant.

“We would open up a room and throw up our hands in horror when we saw what needed to be done,” Dawn recalls.

Hiring townspeople to help, they peeled back layers of paint and wallpaper to reveal original woodwork, transom windows (over doorways), stained glass, and a tin ceiling. All 60 rooms were crammed with turn-of-the-century furniture, including several dozen brass beds. In cellars and basements, they unearthed the hotel’s original ledgers and guest registers, the big brass cash register embossed with the Occidental’s name, and the 25-foot-long mirror that backed the bar.

Soon after the restoration began, a woman who had cared for former Occidental owner Margaret Smith’s African begonias offered Dawn the 100-year-old plants for the hotel. She said yes. The begonias, which can be seen in old pictures of the hotel, are grown from tubers, which sprout new growth if they are cut back when they get old and scraggly.

Other townspeople helped recover the original billiard table and its paperwork certifying that Buell had purchased it in 1886.

One lady handed Dawn a 55-gallon trash bag filled with the hotel’s tablecloths, lace doilies, and linens she’d saved. Buffalo resident Tom Lawrence brought in the bar’s stained glass doors—rescued from the Occidental’s trash 17 years ago. Dillinger donated old photos, including one of an American-Indian woman pulling a travois (two poles lashed together with a platform in between for hauling goods) toward a Union Pacific train. The memorabilia, along with several slugs Dawn dug out of bullet holes in the bar room walls, is showcased in a free museum in the lobby.

“We were very lucky to have this community support,” Dawn says. “People started dipping into their trunks and attics, knowing that the Occidental was going to be brought back to life so that these treasures could come home.”

Nancy Jennings, a former officer of the Buffalo Historical Society, is thrilled Dawn and John have revived the Occidental and that it has again become a center of the community, hosting charity and family events.

“We’ve had some wedding receptions and 50th wedding anniversary parties there,” Jennings says. “Two years ago, some good friends of ours, Ron and Carla Faircloth, who helped renovate the hotel, got married on Valentine’s Day in the lobby. It was one of the first celebrations held since it was refurbished. Dawn was maid of honor, and there were 200 to 300 people in the lobby. Some of the guests were even dressed in period costumes and wearing guns.”

Once again, the townspeople of Buffalo were bringing Western history back to life.

Karen Karvonen is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

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