HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Buffalo Bill Cody's 1921 museum and grave atop Lookout Mountain, where staff report cigar smoke and falling objects
987 1/2 Lookout Mountain Rd, Golden, CO 80401
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
$5 adults (18-64), $4 seniors (65+), $2 active-duty military, $1 ages 6-17, free under 6; the gravesite and park grounds are free
Access
Wheelchair OK
Mountaintop museum building with paved paths to an outdoor gravesite and observation deck
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1921 · Burial site of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, chosen by his wife Louisa in 1917 · Museum opened in 1921 by Cody's foster son Johnny Baker · Owned and operated by the City and County of Denver
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody, the frontier scout and Wild West show impresario who founded the town of Cody, Wyoming, died of organ failure in Denver on January 10, 1917. He had earlier expressed a wish to be buried near Cody, Wyoming, but voided that provision before his death; his wife, Louisa Cody, made the final decision to bury him on Lookout Mountain outside Golden, Colorado, following an open-casket funeral viewed by thousands. Burial took place June 3, 1917, months after his death, with the body held at a Denver morgue in the interim.
Johnny Baker, a close friend and unofficial foster son who had performed in Cody's Wild West show, opened the Buffalo Bill Memorial Museum next to the grave in 1921, the same year Louisa Cody was buried beside her husband. Amid rumors that residents of Cody, Wyoming intended to move the body to Wyoming, Baker later had the grave set in a bed of concrete to prevent it from being disturbed. The museum's collection relocated to its current building, adjacent to the Pahaska Tepee gift shop and cafe, in 1977.
The site remains one of the most visited attractions in the Denver-Golden area: the museum draws more than 80,000 visitors a year, and roughly half a million people visit the gravesite and observation deck annually. The property is owned and operated by the City and County of Denver.
Sources
Staff at the Buffalo Bill Museum have reported the smell of cigar smoke in areas of the building with no obvious source, a detail visitors connect to Cody's own well-documented fondness for cigars. Workers and visitors have also described objects, particularly items on gift-shop shelves, falling or appearing to move without explanation. A separate, less-documented account describes the apparition of a woman said to have died on the property under unclear circumstances; her identity has not been established in any source reviewed for this listing.
The museum was the subject of a 2009 episode of Syfy's Ghost Hunters, in which the TAPS team investigated reports centered on the Pahaska Tepee cafe, including an apparition described as a cowboy figure and accounts from staff of being touched or pushed by an unseen presence.
Separately from the paranormal reports, a folk rivalry persists between Golden and Cody, Wyoming over Buffalo Bill's final resting place. According to a version of the story that circulates in Wyoming, Cody's body was secretly swapped with a look-alike and smuggled out of the Denver morgue before burial, with the real remains buried instead near Cody, Wyoming. The museum's own historical account, backed by contemporary newspaper coverage of the 1917 open-casket funeral, does not support this claim, and it is presented here as regional folklore rather than a documented event.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
A self-guided visit through the museum's Wild West show artifacts and exhibits on William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, followed by his gravesite and the observation deck overlooking Golden and the Denver skyline.
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