Irma Hotel
Irma Hotel is a hotel in Cody, Wyoming, built in 1902. Cody hotel with guest-reported ghost stories. The name the accounts keep returning to is Buffalo Bill Cody. The dossier holds 3 reported claims, 1 legend, 2 documented facts and 2 named or described presences — documented record and retelling kept side by side. It still takes guests. The dossier keeps the place and the story in the same record — which is what the archive is for.
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Is Irma Hotel haunted?
The record holds 3 claims, 1 legend, 2 named entities — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed documented legend. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.
The record — long form
Buffalo Bill Cody opened the Irma Hotel to the public on November 1, 1902, and threw the grand party on November 18 — press and dignitaries imported from as far as Boston — into a building that had cost him $80,000 and was named for his youngest daughter, Irma, born February 9, 1886. He called it, depending on the telling, "a gem" or "just the sweetest hotel that ever was." The cherrywood back bar in the saloon was a gift from Queen Victoria and made the trip from England to Cody by ship, rail and wagon; it is still there.
The Irma was the social center of the town Cody had co-founded in 1895 — the hotel's own account bills it as fancy enough for royalty and plain enough for cowboys — and would-be performers auditioned for the Wild West show in the vacant lots west of the building. Cody kept two suites for his personal use whenever the show tours brought him home.
The documented record
The hotel's ownership ledger is its own Western. Pressed by creditors, Cody signed the Irma over to his wife Louisa in 1913 — the two were then on bad terms — and after his death in 1917 the hotel was foreclosed and sold to Barney Link, whose estate sold it back to Louisa before the year was out. She kept it until her death in 1925. Henry and Pearl Newell expanded the place with an annex around 1930 for the automobile tourist trade; Pearl ran the Irma alone after 1940 until her death in 1965, leaving its Buffalo Bill memorabilia collection — and an endowment from her estate — to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.
The building went on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. What began as fifteen rooms has grown to thirty-nine, and the two suites Cody reserved are still bookable — for a price.
What witnesses file
The file's haunted room is Room 35 — the Paul Stock room, one of the original fifteen — where paranormal groups have booked overnights and guests report disembodied voices and, in one guest's phrasing, "a lot of activity in there, all night long." Others request the room hoping for an encounter and get nothing, which the staff note without editorializing.
The named presence is the proprietor himself. Cody died in Denver in 1917 — not at the Irma — but the reports place him in his hotel anyway: a stewardess staying the night claimed a visit from Buffalo Bill's ghost, and the file records the general belief that his spirit lingers over the establishment. True West magazine's summation survives as the dossier's best line: like old soldiers, old showmen fade away — just not completely.
What remains
The Irma still takes guests on Sheridan Avenue, Queen Victoria's bar still in place, Room 35 still rentable to the brave or the hopeful. The record's verdict: a hotel built by the most famous showman alive, repossessed, reopened and handed down — and reportedly still checked on, from time to time, by the man whose daughter gave it her name.
The Irma Hotel is a landmark in Cody, Wyoming. It was built by William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, the city's co-founder and namesake who named it after his daughter Irma Cody. A focal point is a famous back bar made of cherry that was a gift given by Queen Victoria to Buffalo Bill.
Irma HotelThe record of claims
Wyoming tourism recounts apparitions at the Irma Hotel linked to Buffalo Bill Cody himself — the founder whose name the town still bears — plus reports of belongings moved in the rooms. Cody built the hotel in 1902 and named it for his daughter; the lore says he kept a room in perpetuity. The file stays open on it.
Buffalo Bill is reportedly seen at the Irma — the founder's ghost in the hotel he built, in the town he founded, down the street from the museum that bears his name. If any American legend earned the right to linger at his own address, Cody's case argues itself. It remains the site's standing claim.
Reported figures in the Irma Hotel — apparitions beyond the Cody claim, attached to a building that has hosted guests since 1902. The Irma's lore is layered: the famous founder above the signature, the anonymous guests underneath. The report keeps its place in the record. The report keeps its place in the record.
Wyoming's tourism office recounts stories of a Buffalo Bill apparition and moving belongings at the Irma Hotel — the 1902 Cody hotel Bill built and named for his daughter. The lore puts the Colonel back at his own bar; the hotel's famous cherrywood backbar is where witnesses place him. The backbar is where witnesses place him.
Two accounts on file
Cody hotel with guest-reported ghost stories.
The 1902 hotel—where Buffalo Bill’s name is on the register.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Pass 1 source-grounded discovery; independent historical verification, coordinates and current access still pending. Confidence measures attribution quality, not paranormal reality.
MTWY batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Alleged entities
Buffalo Bill Cody is the Irma Hotel's founding ghost — the legend that the Colonel returns to the hotel he built in 1902 and named for his daughter: an apparition at the famous cherrywood backbar, belongings moved in the Cody suite. Wyoming's tourism office tells the story itself. The hotel keeps the account on its own record — the sort of haunting a building earns one guest at a time. '15 Haunted Places to Visit in Wyoming' carries the account. The file keeps Buffalo Bill Cody on the roster; the sightings keep the name alive.
Buffalo Bill — William F. Cody himself — is the Irma's reported presence: the Colonel said to be seen at the hotel he built, most often near the backbar he installed. Whether or not he walks, the Irma's lore keeps him on payroll a century after his last season. The backbar is where he's placed. A hotel in Cody, Wyoming with more than a century of check-ins gives the reports plenty of rooms to work with. The name travels further than the proof; the sightings keep renewing the lease.
Documented history
Buffalo Bill Cody built the hotel in 1902. The hotel in Cody, Wyoming has its past on record — this entry belongs to that verified layer. The press recorded it; the detail stands as reported history. The detail is preserved in '15 Haunted Places to Visit in Wyoming'. The record keeps it — history, not lore.
Media reportedWyoming Office of TourismThe 1902 hotel is documented. Irma Hotel's documented history in Cody, Wyoming is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. Sources including 'Irma Hotel' carry the record. The record keeps it — history, not lore. The report keeps its place in the record.
Sources on file
- 0115 Haunted Places to Visit in WyomingWyoming Office of Tourism · tourism · A3
- 02Irma HotelWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
Pass 1 source-grounded discovery; independent historical verification, coordinates and current access still pending. Confidence measures attribution quality, not paranormal reality.