Surprise 2!

July 18 dawned a new day! And another HUGE SURPRISE!!  We went to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West-known as the Smithsonian of the West. It is a museum in Cody, seven acres in size. Yes, the museum itself is seven acres. It sits on 27 acres altogether. It is actually five museums in one:  Plains Indians, Draper Museum of Natural History, Bill Cody Museum, Cody Firearms Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, Bill Cody's actual home, and a natural garden.  It was an amazing place to explore. It would have been easy to spend two or more days going through each museum.
 I was in awe as I began to explore the Bill Cody section of the museum. They had given us a list of "tours" they had planned during the day, and I decided to do three of the tours: Wildlife in Yellowstone, Views of yellowstone and People of the West. During each tour you visited three of the museums within the museum and the guide explained how they were influenced in light of the tour.

Norm and Richard headed to the Guns Museum. They have a collection of over 7,000 guns in this museum. One corporation, the Olen Corporation, donated more than 4,000 of the guns. I can't imagine going in there. In fact, I only went in there through one of the tours I took. Norm spent about three hours in that museum and was quite impressed.

Wildlife in Yellowstone went through the layers of Yellowstone, from 10,000 feet down to below 3,000 feet. We learned about the mountain goat and the pronghorn sheep. They are at the top of the chain here. Along with the grizzly bear and the black bears. There was an interesting type of rabbit called the pika. He spends the summer and fall gathering up his food, including a poisonous plant. He stores it up for the winter-even though he does not hibernate. Very interesting!! In the next level down, you had the wolf. Many years ago, they took out all the woves in the park. Yes, all of them. Then several years later, they brought them back. The cattlemen are not happy with this. The wolves don't eat the cattle now, they just chase them and this causes the cattle to lose weight. Therefore, the cattlemen lose money. These wolves even eat buffalo and bears, because they are very fierce and attack their prey in groups or teams. Next, we visited the grizzly bears. There were two bears in the exhibit they had to put down. One was a momma bear who had been hit by a car. Her cub, who only had about a year with her instead of two, started getting into trash and the rangers couldn't keep him out. So they had to put him down too.  They have done many "bear beware" programs in the national parks and there is not so many issues with bears anymore.

In another tour we learned about the Plains Indians, their plight when the buffalo were killed and many of their very interesting customs. They were very "spiritual" people. They counted on the buffalo for  many items. They used almost all of it in their daily lives for food, covering, teepee material, weapons, instruments, utensils and the list goes on.  They also revered the Bald eagle. These were precious birds to them. If they ever recovered a dead eagle, they would harvest the feathers to use in their head coverings.  In later days, the Europeans influenced the Plains Indians in many ways, including a  new material for their teepees.
The third tour I went on was about the views of yellowstone. This tour introduced why Yellowstone became a National Park in 1872 and how it came about. It was interesting to me that Art had a major impact on Yellowstone becoming a National park and becoming so popular.

Bill Cody had a whole museum dedicated to him and his life. He was quite a character. He built hotels, irrigation systems, was a scout  and even had a show named the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show that toured across the United States. There is not space here to share all they had about him and the influence he had on western history. Some information maybe fact, some maybe fiction!

Norm and I stayed at the museum from about 10-5:30 with a short break for some late lunch. We both could have gone back a second day to take in more of what they had to offer.

You know, walking through Buffalo Bill Cody's section, you were reminded that there was much fact and much fiction told about this "colorful" man. It made you wonder at which was which?

There were many surprises all through the  museum about Bill Cody, the Plains Indians and the guns, the Art's influence on Yellowstone or pronghorn sheep. Some of them we just hadn't had the opportunity to hear or learn. Some we had wrong thinking about or had been given incorrect informaion. Some it was a surprise because it was the first time we had heard it.

 This should not be a surprise  ! We can know and trust God's word and every word in it. Why? Because of the author-the Lord. He alone is trustworthy. I heard Andy Stanley say you can trust what's in the Bible because each of the authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write what they wrote. Amen.
2 Timothy 3:16 says: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness."


We need to read the Word so God can us it for the above reasons:
  Teaching- He can teach us His ways and ideas and ways to think through His Word
  Rebuking- sometimes we have messed up and may not even know it. we must read the Word to know how to act and think
  Correct-sometimes we have "wrong" thinking and the Word has to straighten us out. many are blinded and need the Word to help them See
  Training in righteousness- we are to becoming more like Christ.. how do we do that?  Read and study the Word