The Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, has announced that His Serene Highness The Sovereign Prince of Monaco Albert II has accepted its invitation to attend its 2013 Patrons Ball on September 21, 2013.
“As you may know, 2013 is a special year for us all as we celebrate, with enormous pride and pleasure, the centennial of the visit to Cody of Prince Albert I, the scholarly prince and co-founder of oceanography,” His Excellency Gilles Noghes Ambassador of Prince Albert wrote in prepared remarks. “In September 1913, he went hunting with the iconic Buffalo Bill.
“Now, I have the distinct honor of informing you that Prince Albert II of Monaco, the great, great grandson of Albert I, has accepted the kind invitation of Governor Matt Mead of the State of Wyoming and the Board of Trustees of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center to participate in this celebration and will be present here next year!”
Albert I was a noted visionary with particular concern for deforestation and over-fishing in ocean waters. In the 21st century, Prince Albert II carries on the same tradition with his scientific interest in the environment, a natural extension of his great, great grandfather’s passions. Six years ago, he created the Prince Albert II Foundation with the stated purpose to protect the environment and encourage sustainable development. The foundation recently decided to honor the biodiversity of the Greater Yellowstone region by awarding—for the first time next year—an important prize of biodiversity with details to be announced soon.
“We are so delighted that HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco is joining us here next year,” Barron Collier II, Chairman of the Center’s Board of Trustees said. “His environmental awareness and concern bodes well for us as we share the Prince’s great passion for this area—and more broadly for the planet. After all, it was Buffalo Bill who adopted a world view well beyond the confines of America’s Great Plains, a strategy we here at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center have adopted as we celebrate the very global nature of the Spirit of the American West, a celebration that transcends time and place. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Albert II and the Principality of Monaco.”
The 2013 Buffalo Bill Historical Center Annual Patrons Ball takes place September 21, 2013.
Since 1917, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West has been committed to the greatness and growth of the American West, keeping western experiences alive. The Center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, weaves the varied threads of the western experience—history and myth, art and Native culture, firearms, and the nature and science of Yellowstone—into the rich panorama that is the American West.
For additional information, visit centerofthewest.org or the Center’s page on Facebook.
