8 Best Downtowns In Wyoming

Cody's Irma Hotel has been pouring drinks since 1902 in the building Buffalo Bill named for his daughter. Jackson's Town Square sits inside four arches built entirely from naturally shed elk antlers. Sheridan's Mint has been collecting cowboy memorabilia behind its neon facade since 1907. Thermopolis runs free public hot-spring baths under the state's permanent treaty obligation with the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho. These eight Wyoming downtowns hold some of the most concentrated Old West heritage left in the Mountain West.

Cody

Cody runs the most atmospheric downtown in the state, with wooden boardwalks, Western storefronts, and the Irma Hotel still operating in the building Buffalo Bill Cody built in 1902 and named after his daughter Irma. The hotel still serves dinner under the original cherry-wood back bar that Queen Victoria sent over as a gift.

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West a block away holds five museums under one roof, with the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, the Whitney Western Art Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum, and the Draper Natural History Museum sharing the campus. Old Trail Town on the western edge of Cody preserves 28 authentic 19th-century cabins and structures relocated to the original Cody townsite. It is one of the cleanest windows into Wyoming frontier life still standing.

Buffalo

Buffalo's wide Main Street sits at the base of the Bighorn Mountains, with the Occidental Hotel as the visual anchor. Founded in 1880 and restored to its 19th-century interior, the Occidental reputedly hosted Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jane, Theodore Roosevelt, Butch Cassidy, and the Sundance Kid through its early decades.

The Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum in the downtown core holds the personal artifact collection of pharmacist Jim Gatchell, who received gifts from cowboys, lawmen, settlers, and Native American friends across the late 1800s and early 1900s. Behind Main Street, the Clear Creek Trail follows the creek through a green corridor of water, cottonwoods, and mountain views.

Jackson

Jackson's Town Square is defined by four arches built entirely from naturally shed elk antlers, a tradition tied to the nearby National Elk Refuge. Local Boy Scouts collect the antlers under permit every spring and sell many at the ElkFest auction to fund conservation work.

The arches surround George Washington Memorial Park at the center of town, where wooden boardwalks, galleries, saloons, and outfitters keep the Old West look intact. The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar on the north side of the square runs the classic Western scene with saddle-topped barstools, live country and rock music, and a long bar that has been in business since 1937.

Dubois

Dubois runs a log-cabin Main Street between alpine desert, red-rock badlands, and the Wind River Mountains. The town has deep ties to Native American history, the fur trade, and ranching culture, and the downtown core leans into all three.

The National Bighorn Sheep Interpretive Center, in town on the south side of the highway, covers wild-sheep biology and conservation across the West and runs winter tours of the nearby Whiskey Basin wintering range. The Dubois Museum a few blocks off the main grid covers homesteading, Native American artifacts, and early-ranching culture. The Cowboy Café on Ramshorn Street handles the breakfast and burger end for ranch hands, locals, and road-trippers cycling through.

Sheridan

Sheridan's Main Street holds restored brick commercial buildings and the kind of historic bar (The Mint, neon out front, pouring since 1907) that anchors the rest of the downtown. The Mint's interior is covered in decades of cowboy memorabilia, taxidermy, rodeo photos, and brands burned into the wood by local ranchers.

King's Saddlery a few blocks over is one of the most respected tack and rope shops in the Mountain West, both a working gear store and an informal cowboy museum that ranchers, collectors, and curious travelers all walk through. The restored WYO Theater on North Main runs concerts, films, and community events under its distinctive marquee.

Thermopolis

Thermopolis runs a compact early-20th-century downtown with the unusual claim to fame of the largest mineral hot spring still open to free public bathing. The Hot Springs State Park Bath House, built in the early 1900s, honors the "free baths forever" condition the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho secured when the land was transferred to the state of Wyoming in 1896. The mineral water emerges at about 128°F and is cooled to a comfortable 104°F for the soaking pools.

The Swinging Bridge across the Big Horn River below the springs gives the standard view back over the travertine terraces. Hot Springs County Museum & Cultural Center a few blocks downtown holds Native American history, frontier-life artifacts, and the original Hole-in-the-Wall Bar long associated with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's Wild Bunch.

Pinedale

Pinedale's downtown is small but atmospheric, with Western-style storefronts, local outfitters, and views east to the Wind River Mountains. The Museum of the Mountain Man on the north edge of town runs the fur-trade-era interpretive collection covering the early-1800s trappers, explorers, and Indigenous communities that shaped the Rocky Mountain West.

The Wrangler Café on Pine Street is the diner the locals cycle through, running big breakfasts, burgers, and chicken-fried steak at everyday-affordable prices. Heart & Soul Café handles the morning coffee and the scratch-made baked-goods side a few doors down. The town fills with hikers and climbers coming off the Wind River Range trails through the summer season.

Lander

Lander's downtown sits at the foot of the Wind River Range with a tighter cluster of breweries, cafes, and outfitters than most Wyoming towns this size. The Noble Hotel on Main Street, with its early-20th-century facade still intact, anchors the historic stretch.

The Grand Theatre a few doors away is one of the longest continuously operating cinemas in Wyoming, with its vintage marquee and century-old entertainment lineage still in service. Lander Brewing Company & Gannett Grill on Main Street is the central downtown hangout, with a courtyard, craft beer, and casual dining that runs full in summer when climbers and hikers come down off the trails. The whole stretch including Brewmaster's office and the brewery is known locally as the Coalter Block.

Planning the Wyoming Downtown Loop

The eight Wyoming downtowns above all run on some version of the same trade: a preserved 19th-century commercial core, a working historic hotel or bar, and a museum that tells the local version of the Old West story. Pick the one that fits the route and start the morning on whichever main street.