Tour Guide Pauline Benton says, "People from the East were coming out west to settle, build up house and ranches and businesses downtown and they needed a place to stay."  That's how the Sheridan Inn came to fruition.In 1892 this small wild west town was the last stop on the Burlington Railroad.  By 1893 the Inn was built serving as the only hotel, restaurant and entertainment venue in the area.  And it wasn't long after that the famous Buffalo Bill took ownership.  Benton says, "Of course Bill Cody was a very colorful man. He was in the middle of everything and had something going on all the time."  One of his projects was his famous Wild West Show.  Based in Sheridan, he took his show around the globe.  The Inn's historic bar is a testament of how popular it was.  Benton says, "It's said that Queen Victoria had sent the bar over from England because when Bill Cody took his Wild West show to England, to London, England, to present it to Queen Victoria, she thought that was the greatest show on earth and this was her present to Bill Cody."  The bar is one of the few original items left at the Sheridan Inn, as most others were auctioned off in the 1960s when the Inn went into bankruptcy.  Since that time, the inn has been restored and the plan is to have the upstairs rooms remodeled to once again host overnight guests.  Benton says, "They say it's 80 percent done and it would only take 90 days to finish it whenever we get the money."  So fundraising has begun as workers hope to one day return the Inn to its wild west glory.

Zach Nugent