The story
Cody Wild West River Fest in Cody
The Cody Wild West River Fest is a community river event centered on the Shoshone River in Cody, Wyoming, bringing together paddling, floating, and riverside activities with the town's broader Western and outdoor recreation identity. It reflects Cody's location along a river valley long used for irrigation, recreation, and access to Yellowstone's east entrance.
Cody, Wyoming sits in the Bighorn Basin along the Shoshone River, a waterway that has shaped the valley since Buffalo Bill Cody and early settlers first developed irrigation systems to make the surrounding high desert land productive for ranching and agriculture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.