CODY - Dozens of historic buildings at the original town site of Cody City have been "saved forever," according to an historian who announced a deal Friday in which a nonprofit museum will assume ownership of Old Trail Town.

Located on Cody's West Strip, Old Trail Town is known mainly as a seasonal tourist attraction. But the 27 buildings, seven graves and other Old West relics are unique in their collective ability to impart a sense of the region's pioneer days, said Clay Gibbons.

"This town was looking at being sold off, piece-by-piece, building-by-building," said Gibbons, a Worland historian who is president of the nonprofit Museum of the Old West, founded to provide management and financial support for Old Trail Town.

Since the mid-1960s, historian and archaeologist Bob Edgar built Old Trail Town one cabin at a time, collecting the vanishing artifacts of the West and presenting them in a picturesque and historically engaging town site near Cody's rodeo grounds.

But after Edgar's divorce, fractured ownership of Old Trail Town meant differing views on its management and upkeep, Gibbons said, explaining that a protracted legal dispute over the last seven years threatened to end next month in a court-ordered auction of all assets.

"It got to be a very involved ordeal," Gibbons said, adding that the Museum of the West, as sole owner of the property, will begin working to repair and restore many of the long-neglected buildings.

Gibbons said the volunteer group planned to open a gift shop that will feature books, videos and other materials based on Edgar's research and would develop live programs and presentations that highlight the site's unique atmosphere.

Public documents show a mortgage of more than $400,000 on the property, and board members said they have donated significant additional private funds to facilitate the purchase, financed by Pinnacle Bank.

Gibbons said that admission fees and other revenues will service the debt on the 20-year loan, but added that plans call for paying off the note as soon as possible.

"We will be beginning a campaign to try to raise money to retire this debt," said Larry Edgar, Bob's brother, and occasional collaborator on historical projects, including Old Trail Town.

"It constantly amazes me about Cody. When people want to do something, it happens," said Mayor Nancy Tia Brown.

Larry Edgar praised the decades of hard work by his brother, who had lived at Old Trail Town until two years ago but now lives in Powell and is suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

"It took him a lifetime," he said. "For years, he never even charged anything. He just took donations from tourists who came out and loved seeing it."

"This was his life and this is his legacy. And now it will go on, and that's what he wanted," said Cathy Dahlgren, Bob Edgar's daughter.

That legacy includes a collection of one-of-a-kind buildings, like a hideout used by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; the cabin of famed mountain man Jeremiah "liver-eating" Johnson; the home of Frank Houx, Cody's first mayor; and a building moved from the Marquette community, an early settlement now submerged in the Buffalo Bill Reservoir.

An enthusiastic and dogged chronicler of Bighorn Basin history, Bob Edgar worked as an archaeologist and historian for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, and helped excavate Mummy Cave, a historical treasure trove of paleoindian artifacts located near the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

Besides the buildings, Gibbons said the Old Trail Town purchase agreement included Edgar's entire collection of artifacts acquired over the decades, including many unique items donated by local people.

Gibbons said that plans call for opening Old Trail Town on May 15 for the summer tourist season, with a community cleanup day set for May 9.

Contact Ruffin Prevost at rprevost@billingsgazette.com or 307-527-7250.