Once the regional center for small ranch culture, Buffalo was the focus of the Johnson County War invaders’ hostilities, although they never quite made it there.  Today, it is a small city with a wonderful old downtown on the banks of Clear Creek, complete with a bronze tableau of a small rancher caught in the act of branding a calf only questionably his.  An old carousel imported from New Jersey and westernized with the addition of bucking horses adds a whimsical note.

Buffalo's big attraction is the Jim Gatchell Historical Society and Museum, a wonderful place to immerse yourself in Indian War and Johnson County War memorabilia.  Many of the informative exhibits contain amusing undercurrents of local sentiment and politics.  In a basement corner of one of the museum buildings hangs a wolf skin that looks like it could have covered a full-grown bear.  Beside it is a hair-raising account of how the huge animal, which exhibited a strong preference for horse meat, was finally killed by a determined but foolhardy local rancher on horseback.

Be sure to visit a hidden treasure of a petrified forest off the Interstate east of Buffalo.  A do-it-yourself interpretive trail guides you over the hillside, ending at a still vertical section of hollow tree trunk that is large enough to stand inside, but please don't.  Wyoming wind allowing, the site is a great place to enjoy a picnic lunch.