Cody Trolley Tour #1 Thing To Do for Fun & Education in Cody Wyoming

www.codytrolleytours.com

🎙️ Host: Ashley Oakley
🎙️ Guest: Aili Roberson, Tour Guide at Cody Trolley Tours

**Introduction**
Host Ashley Oakley kicks off the episode live from Cody, Wyoming, with special guest Aili Roberson, the enthusiastic tour guide at Cody Trolley Tours. The trolley tour, departing from the historic Irma Hotel, promises an immersive journey into the town's rich history.

**What's the Trolley Tour All About?**
Aili explains that the trolley tour condenses a century of history into an hour-long adventure. The tour encompasses about 22 miles, covering everything from Buffalo Bill's role in founding the town to exploring the picturesque reservoir. It's the ultimate guide to having a blast in Cody.

**Origin of Aili's Tour Guide Role**
Aili shares her origin story: her parents own Cody Trolley Tours, and when a guide unexpectedly backed out during the 2020 season, Aili stepped up to the plate. In just two days, she mastered the script and movements to lead engaging tours. Four seasons later, she's still passionately sharing Cody's history.

**Favorite Parts of the Trolley Tour**
Aili's favorite aspect of the tour is meeting people from around the world. She recounts encounters with visitors from Denmark and Holland. Aili particularly enjoys sharing the stories of Queen Victoria's connection to Buffalo Bill and the inspiring life of Annie Oakley.

**Inspiration from Annie Oakley**
The conversation shifts to Annie Oakley, who Aili deeply admires. She describes Annie as a confident and selfless woman who made her mark through her shooting skills. Annie's dedication to teaching young soldiers during World War I resonates with Aili's admiration.

**Cody's Historical Evolution**
Ashley and Aili delve into Cody's evolution, from its origins near the river to the current layout. Buffalo Bill's meticulous planning, including the positioning of the town across the river and its proximity to Cedar Mountain, is highlighted. Cody's transformation through Hollywood and its unique history are explored.

**Enchanting Spirits of Cody**
The conversation takes a haunting turn as Aili discusses the mystical side of Cody. She acknowledges the eerie presence at the historic Irma Hotel and believes that Buffalo Bill's spirit might linger, enjoying a bit of mischief. Aili recounts instances of inexplicable occurrences and feels that the town's history is interwoven with its spirits.

**Invitation to the Trolley Tour**
Aili invites listeners to experience the trolley tour firsthand. Operating mainly on Saturdays and Sundays, the tour provides a remarkable way to learn about Cody's history. Ashley emphasizes the significance of understanding genuine history and recommends the tour to both locals and visitors.

**Wrap-up**
The episode concludes with Ashley urging listeners to share the podcast with friends. She promotes the Cody Art Show and Fashion Spectacular as well as the delicious Prime Rib Buffet at the Irma Hotel, making it clear that experiencing the trolley tour and savoring Cody's offerings is a must.


📝 **Show Notes**:
- Cody Trolley Tours offers a condensed century of history in an hour-long tour.
- Aili Roberson's journey began when she stepped up to fill in as a tour guide for her parents' company.
- The tour includes stories of Buffalo Bill, Queen Victoria, and Annie Oakley.
- Cody's history includes its layout changes, inspired by Buffalo Bill's visionary planning.
- The enchanting spirits of Cody, including potential ghostly encounters, add intrigue.
- Listeners are invited to join the trolley tour to learn more about Cody's captivating history.
[End of Show Notes]

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it is Ashley Oakley andI am live on the Cody, Wyoming
Podcast with Eilei Robertson, and she'sthe tour guide at Cody Trolley Tours in
Cody, Wyoming. This is atour that you must go on. It
leaves from the Irma Hotel. Welcome, Iiley, thank you. I'm so
excited that you're here. I'm excitedto be here. I need to know

(00:21):
how it works. So basically,everyone just gives us an hour. We
give them a hundred years of history. We tell them about Buffalo Bill,
how he got his town started.We show you everything there is to do
here. It's about twenty two milesall throughout town. We even take you
out to the reservoir and back intotown, and we just show you everything

(00:41):
there is to have a good timein Cody. How did you get this
job? So, my parents actuallyowned the company and it was a funny
story. In twenty twenty, oneof their guides backed out in the middle
of the season. I had expressedmy interest in doing the tours earlier that
summer, and my mom approached meand she said, Hey, Ailee,

(01:03):
do you want to do the tours? And I was like, Yeah,
that'd be great. She said,awesome, you have two days, And
so I spent the next two dayslearning the script, memorizing all of the
movements that I was going to makeand how I was going to hold the
pictures and point at things in thepictures and just make sure that the writers
would have a really good time.And two days later I was I was

(01:25):
in it, and I haven't stoppeddoing it since. That's amazing how long
ago was that. That was fourseasons ago, three summers ago, four
season Yeah, I was like intwenty nineteen, one, twenty two,
or in twenty three. Yep.Yeah. What's your favorite part of the
trolley tour? Oh, my goodness, there's I think there's a lot of
different spects about the tour that Ireally enjoy, But my favorite part is

(01:48):
probably meeting all of the people,because I meet people from all over the
world. I had people on thetour from Denmark today, which was a
first I've Last week, I hadpeople from Holland, and so it's just
really fun seeing where everyone is travelingfrom and how far they've come to just
take a tour and get to learnhistory. I think my favorite stories on

(02:09):
the tour are the Queen Victoria's story, and so we talk about Queen Victoria
for Friendship with Buffalo Bill and theAnnie Oakley story. Actually, I really
I look up to Annie a lot. She's a very respectable woman. Tell
me a little bit more about her. Why do you love her? First
of all, let me I'm justPhilippians. How old are you? I'm
twenty two? Okay, so twentytwo years old. The tour guide for

(02:30):
all these people that are much olderthan you. Usually there's some kids,
there's kids, but most people aremuch older than you that go on this
tour. Annie Oakley, Whitey lover. Let's she just even just looking at
the pictures that we have of her, she has this aura that is just
confident woman. She made herself andshe made a name just by shooting,

(02:53):
and she was able to feed herfamily when they were completely poor, and
she sold enough game to sell offthe mortgage on her mom's farm so that
they didn't lose it. I reallyenjoy how strong of a person she was,
and she was very selfless. Youknow, she had hundreds of metals

(03:16):
that she melted down so that shewould be able to teach young soldiers during
the World First World War how toshoot, and I'd really admire that.
Yeah, I remember on the tourwhen you said that, I thought,
in my mind, wow, whatif it's crazy to think that we went
into an area where we melted downall of our goods and sent them somewhere
else. People would not do thatright now. You would never be caught

(03:39):
dead doing that. So it's avery historical tour. I know. You
go all the way out to thedam and you come back and there's an
old house in town. How oldis that old house? It was built
in eighteen nineties, So that's aboutgoing to do a little bit of math
here. It is one hundred andtwenty seven years old. Amazing. Ray

(04:00):
part about the streets is that theyare wide on the part where they came
from the river, so everyone thatcame to town usually came from the river.
First of all, Buffalo Bill wantedCody to be closer to see her
mountain. The way he had designedit was to have the city on either
side of the river, but itwas too hard to get water up to

(04:21):
the town, so in order tomake that work for everyone, they moved
it over a mile. Once theymoved it over the train station was across
the river, and once they gotinto town, they would cross the river
to come up Main Street, whichis now Twelfth Street. It would take
you right to the Irma Hotel.Buffalo Bill was just really good at planning

(04:43):
things like that, and he wasa very he was always thinking, always
calculating. It's interesting because it doesn'tseem like there's very many people like him
anymore. The fact that we're inthe Irma Hotel right now live. Have
you had any ghost encounters while you'vebeen I haven't had any ghost encounters,
but they're definitely presence field. Well, there was one day that we had

(05:06):
a really bad rainstorm, and whenthe lights are completely shut off in the
Irma, it's just really eerie,and you can tell that there's something lingering
about the Irma Hotel. But Ialways joked with some coworkers a few years
ago that Buffalo Bill haunts the townbecause they did, although there's speculation about

(05:30):
where he's buried, they did performa Native American ritual to have his soul
transported to Cedar Mountain. YEP.I believe that he haunts the town because
sometimes you'll get random phone calls.There's just nothing on the other end,
Do you think it's haunting or isit like loving the town? I think

(05:51):
both. Okay. I think helikes to miss with the people. Okay,
there's a jokester aspect of most spirits. I would say, yeah.
Didn't say it's a negative thing,no, definitely not. Okay, some
people think conting is negative just theworld might take it like that, right,
But it's very inviting and enchanting actually, and there is an enchanting spirit
to Cody, and I do believethat most of the people that used to

(06:12):
live here are still here. Forsure. If you go into any of
the airbnbs or you rent any placein town, my shower turns on,
the lights, turn on, thefan turns on. I heard people talking.
Yeah, even out at my house. It's in a newer area,
but there was one time I wasstaying home alone. I heard footsteps down
the stairs and it stopped right outsidemy room. Is very nerve wracking.

(06:36):
I definitely agree there's something about Codythat it just has this presence, and
I think it's because of all ofthe history of the town and all of
those people are still I mean,it's really the last place where Hollywood,
like Hollywood came here and then ittransformed, basically transformed through Hollywood, the

(06:58):
idea of Hollywood, not necessarily Hollywood. They didn't call Hollywood back then,
but it is what Hollywood is todayas how this town transformed. And I
don't know if you've ever looked atit that way, but if you think
about what happened, they went fromhaving Native American circles where they didn't know
anything about notoriety, and then Hollywoodhappened to them, and then they became

(07:23):
these figures instead of these people,right, And so it takes your soul
away from you a little bit.And so it's an interesting idea. Right.
They loved him so much because hehad helped them so much. And
that story isn't spun very well byvery many people. But I think that
you guys at the Trolley Tour doan amazing job of actually telling the real
story of history. If you're listeningto this podcast, you must go on

(07:45):
the Trolley Tour because you will learnthings that you never knew. And everyone
has their own version of history.You have to hear this one. It's
important. As we've traveled through historyover the last few years, we've seen
how people can rewrite it to anythingthey want. So coming here learning the
actual street, Bring your children,bring your friends, bring everyone, get
on the trolley tour and listen toAili because she knows everything about the trolley

(08:07):
tour. What do you want totell the people from that are listening,
how do you want to invite themto come? Basically, just come see
me on Saturdays and Sundays. That'swhen I will be there. And like
I said, give us an hourand we will give you a one hundred
plus years of history. Amazing.Now you know exactly, it's one hundred
and twenty seven Saturday and Sunday.What times are the trolley tours. There's
a point in August where the oneo'clock tour will stop and then we will

(08:31):
be running tours at eleven am andthree pm. And how long did the
tours run all the way through theyear or are did they stop at some
point? They end? September thirtieth. September thirtieth after the Rondebo Royal.
So the Rondevo Royal's coming up.If you don't know what that is,
the biggest art shoal in the worldof Western art. Right here in Cody,
Wyoming. I know that there's goingto be a fashion show on the
twenty first, which is a Thursday. It's called the Cody Art and Fashion

(08:54):
Spectacular. I'm excited because we're goingto find out more about that. The
trolley tour is yours to have,Folks. If you're listening, this is
Ashley Oakley. I'm live in Cody, Wyoming. You must come here.
If you've never visited, and ifyou're local, get on the trolley tour
and learn something about this place.You will learn something, I promise,
and you need to be Aili andher family. They're really important people and
amazing people. Thank you so muchAili for being on today. Thank you.

(09:16):
You're welcome. This is Ashley Oakley. If you're listening to this and
you loved it, please go andshare this podcast with your friends. This
episode is brought to you by theIrma Hotel and their Prime Rib Buffet.
It's your job to get on thetrolley Tour, get off the trolley tour
and go and eat the Prime RibBuffet. You will not be disappointed.