Since 2011, our monumental bronze statue, Code of the West, 2006, was located offsite at the Yellowstone Regional Airport in Cody. It served as our artwork of welcome for those flying into Cody, alongside our other airport sculpture, Big Hal cast in 2003 by artist Michael Coleman.
To celebrate our new name and look—the Buffalo Bill Center of the West—we decided to bring Code of the West back to our grounds and reinstall it in grand style, as the first work of art you see on our campus.
Take a look at the process…from its removal at the airport to its installation at its new home at the Center of the West!
Code of the West was sculpted by Colorado based artist Herb Mignery. Mignery’s work tells the stories of the men and women of the historic and the ongoing American West. He is also a member of the Cowboy Artists of America and the National Sculpture Society of America.
Just last year, Mignery’s sculpture, On Common Ground won the commission to commemorate Prince Albert I of Monaco’s 1913 hunting trip near Cody, Wyoming, with William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Cast number 1 is in the collection of Prince Albert II, and cast number 2 is in the permanent collection of the Center’s Whitney Western Art Museum.
