John Darby

John Darby
born June 12, 1932

A few years ago, a big-shot came to stay at the Irma Hotel, where most of the big-shots and regular folks who visit Cody stay at one time or another.

John Darby, owner of the hotel, doesn't remember the big-shot's name, but does remember why the man came to Cody.

"He said the reason he loves Cody was it reminds him of the town he grew up in. Well, that's the same for me," Darby said.

But that place, Boulder, Colo., is hardly recognizable anymore to Darby, whose family ranched there. He lived in a community of just a few thousand when he left about 30 years ago. Now, Boulder is home to 100,000, and Boulder County has more people than half of Wyoming.

So it's not much of a surprise when Darby says he hasn't seen Cody change that much since he has been here, first taking over the Irma Hotel in 1982 in a trade for his ranch on the Greybull River.

The lesson from Boulder is that change is inevitable, he said, and development is bound to come.

"You can't stop them. You can only make them do it right," he said.

One thing Darby figures he has done right is market the Irma, built by Buffalo Bill Cody in 1902, and where the showman kept a personal office and two suites, calling it "just the sweetest hotel there ever was."

Darby has always used the iconic western showman to attract guests. But he recalls how another top Cody tourist attraction spent thousands to find out how to market to visitors.

"They said you should do three things: advertise Buffalo Bill, Buffalo Bill and Buffalo Bill," he said.

"Maybe 15 or 20 years go, they did a survey in Europe of the most remembered American. It was still Buffalo Bill," he said.

"We just run it the way that Buffalo Bill ran it," Darby said of the Irma. "He got along with everybody."

Even when that means answering inquiries from tourists on their first trip West that some people might categorize as "stupid questions."

"Years ago, there was a lady that asked what time they turned the animals out in Yellowstone," he said.

And it's the animals — hunting, fishing — and the great outdoors that make Cody a wonderful place to live, Darby said. But it can be a tough place to earn a living.

His advice for those just graduating high school in Cody: "I'd tell them to go off to school and don't come back. There's no opportunity here, unless you're ready to make beds."

And as for Darby's own legacy as a Cody businessman?

"My credit's good," he said with a smile.