Giant Winchester rifle on 12th Street storefront (30 ft, 1976 parade prop)

Cody, Wyoming, United States

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Husky Oil had a giant replica of a Winchester 94 'Buffalo Bill' .30-30 rifle built for the 4 July 1976 Cody Stampede bicentennial parade, where it rode on a float with grand marshal John Wayne. It was later mounted on the roof of 1137 12th Street, a building the Irma Hotel acquired in the 1990s. The rifle was taken down in May 2026 for restoration, and its owner told Cowboy State Daily on 3 July 2026 that it would go back in place on 5 July.

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Giant Winchester rifle on 12th Street storefront (30 ft, 1976 parade prop)

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Approximate location · 44.526° N, 109.056° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A giant Winchester rifle once rode through Cody on a parade float beside John Wayne, and later it sat on a roof.

Cowboy State Daily reports that Husky Oil, a company founded in Cody in 1938, decided to make its own contribution to the town's 1976 bicentennial celebrations. On July 4, 1976, John Wayne, grand marshal of the Cody Stampede Parade, paraded through town with the rifle. The newspaper says the parade's theme was "Celebrating Winchester: The Gun That Won the West". It describes the rifle as a replica of a 1968 Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill .30-30, according to a former tenant of the building. The same tenant said it was built only for temporary display, with some parts made of cardboard. A woman involved at the time recalls Husky Oil commissioning it from a parade-float maker. Cowboy State Daily gave its length as 30 feet in June 2026 and 40 feet in July 2026.

After the parade, the paper says, the rifle was stored at the Husky Oil refinery; a few years later Jack's Sports & OK Hardware opened at 1137 12th Street, and the article says the store came with the rifle already on the roof. The Irma Hotel's owner says the hotel acquired the rifle in the 1990s when it bought the building.

In May 2026, Cowboy State Daily says, the rifle disappeared from the rooftop; windstorms and 50 years of weather had left it in poor shape, and a crane lifted it onto a trailer. It was taken apart for new and reinforced parts and for repainting closer to its 1976 colours. A July 3, 2026 article, which gives its length as 40 feet, says the owner planned to put it back "right back where it was" on July 5.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Look for it on the roofline of the building next to the Irma Hotel on 12th Street in downtown Cody. It is viewed from the street.

ACCESS

Mounted on a downtown rooftop and visible from the public street; there is no access to the roof. Owner restored it in 2026 and said it would go back in place after the July 2026 parade.

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Giant fiberglass buffalo skull doorway (Laundromat and Carwash, 15 ft)

Dubois, Wyoming

A 15-foot-tall fiberglass skull forms the entrance to the Laundromat and Carwash in Dubois, Wyoming, so customers walk through it to reach the machines. Local artist Vic Lemmon signed it in 1982 for his Grub ’n Tub laundromat and restaurant.

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120 km away

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