Have You Heard The One About The New Wooden Cowboy In Wyoming?

In 2020 there were many restaurants and businesses that closed down due to the pandemic and that meant that some nostalgia in those businesses was lost.

A restaurant called 'Yesterday's' in Columbia, South Carolina was one of those that closed after 43 years. Yesterday's was known for having a large carved wooden naked cowboy in a bathtub sitting inside the establishment. When the business closed in 2020, the owners started auctioning off the items inside, that included the popular naked bathing cowboy. The cowboy went up for auction on liveauctioneers.com and was purchased by University of South Carolina graduate Katie Pearson.

When Katie was young, she and her family would often visit the restaurant and then when she was in college, she continued to visit since she lived in Columbia, SC. After graduating in 2014, Katie moved west to take a job at Yellowstone here in Wyoming.

Katie works at Heart Six Guest Ranch and is a server in the Buffalo Valley Café  in the Jackson Hole town of Moran, Wyoming and felt the café would be a great location for the cowboy to settle in.

When she found out the cowboy was up for sale, she knew she wanted it and it would fit in great in the Cowboy State.

Katie told WLTX - TV

When it closed, I was sad just thinking that he would end in a house or not being enjoyed or anything like that

So in July of 2020, Katie purchased the cowboy for $3600 from liveauctioneers.com and with the help of her dad, who loaded the nearly 900 pound cowboy into the bed of his truck, the cowboy settled into his new home in Wyoming.

The wooden cowboy can be seen when you visit the Buffalo Valley Café. You can see the complete story from WLTX - TV