The Irma Hotel has stood on Sheridan Avenue in Cody, Wyoming since Buffalo Bill Cody opened it on November 1, 1902, naming it for his youngest daughter. Three stories of red brick and dark wood, it was built as the crown of a town Cody had founded and intended to make a gateway to Yellowstone. The restaurant, the wide lobby floors, the rooms in the historic wing — all of it still carries the weight of that original ambition, and the particular silence of a place that has never fully agreed to release what it holds.
The ghost stories here are grounded in documented history. Park County Archivist Robyn Cutter, working through old newspaper archives, discovered that a former U.S. Army soldier named Frank Cunningham shot up Room 35 in 1912 while apparently hallucinating — and that modern visitors, with no knowledge of that incident, have independently reported a figure in a cavalry uniform in the same room. A longtime employee named Geny Raile swore Buffalo Bill himself appeared and placed his arm around her shoulders. In the restaurant, a well-dressed man in a fedora has materialized in booth three for decades, vanishing before anyone can take his order — witnessed by multiple waitresses across multiple summers. Room 16 carries a chill with no mechanical explanation, and its rocking chair moves on its own.
The Irma remains a working hotel and restaurant today, open to all, with the historic wing available to book. Cody sits at the eastern entrance to Yellowstone, making the Irma a natural staging point for adventure travel in the region. What distinguishes it from most haunted hotels is the archival record behind its legends. The soldier in Room 35, the man in the fedora, the cold room with the restless chair are not marketing inventions. They are documented patterns, reported independently across decades, by people who came only for a meal or a night and found themselves with something harder to explain.
Story Source: cowboystatedaily.com
Address: 1192 Sheridan Ave, Cody, WY 82414
Accessibility Rating: Open to All — Freely accessible to the public with no advance requirement. Includes hotels, restaurants, bars, and public historic sites where visitors may walk in without prior booking.
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What Others Have Experienced
A visitor staying in the historic wing described being woken near 2am by what sounded like deliberate footsteps and a measured knock outside their door. When they opened it, the hallway was empty—and the same thing happened again later that night.
— from TripAdvisor
One guest who specifically requested the haunted side reported hearing footsteps that stopped the moment they investigated; this repeated twice, and they noted the pacing felt too deliberate to dismiss.
— from TripAdvisor
A former waitress described repeatedly being sent to take orders from a well-dressed man in a fedora in a corner booth, only to find it empty. Multiple staff with no prior ghost knowledge shared the same experience.
— from Cowboy State Daily
Guests describe Room 16 as noticeably cooler than the rest of the hotel, with the rocking chair drawing the most attention. Several reported waking to unexplained rocking sounds.
— from Cody Yellowstone
Visitors at the Colonel Cody Suite described faint jingling spurs from nearby rooms late at night and fleeting movement in mirrors that couldn’t be attributed to anyone present.
— from Cody Yellowstone
