Cody has another reason to celebrate as a world-class tourist destination.
The state’s task force, made up of people from all over Wyoming from various backgrounds, has awarded Cody as the place to have a $10M state shooting complex built, which is estimated to bring in millions of dollars to Park County and the state.
The actual site for the shooting complex is about 7 miles outside of town on Highway 120 and will be built on more than 2,000 acres of state land.
Cody was one of four communities that was whittled down to two last month.
“We’re really honored that the state committee trusted us to pull this project together; to get their endorsement, a strong endorsement,” says James Klessens, president of Forward Cody, and part of the local committee to get the shooting complex here.
Back in 2023, the State Legislature voted on setting aside money to have a world-class shooting complex built in the state like Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Arizona. The goal was to attract national and international competitors in wide-ranging events like pistol, rifle, shotgun, and archery target shooting.
After the passing of SF0169 and subsequent announcement was made back in March, nine towns across the Cowboy State created committees, secured acres of land, brought in experts, and compiled research to try to convince a task force that not only should the world-class complex be built in their town, but it would be a sustainable events center for years to come.
“The expectation is 12 to 15 national and international shooting competitions,” Klessens says. Events would include pistol, long-rifle, and shotgun events, as well as archery.
With the National Rifle Association sanctioning over 11,000 shooting tournaments and sponsoring 50 national shooting championships every year, James Klessens, who was on the committee to lure the shooting complex to Cody, says the impact to not only Park County and the state would be massive with the amount of people who travel to compete and watch these events.
And spend money.
National shooting competitions are big business for the towns and ranges that host them.
For example, the 3-Gun Nation Pro Series tournaments offered a $50,000 grand prize to the winner of their yearly tournament. However, some say that viewing competitions as a quick way to make money can lead to failure before developing the skills needed to win.
But not everyone is happy that Cody was chosen as the state shooting complex site. Some see the remote location of a town of a little over 10,000 people as not being sufficient to get people to tour other parts of the state, since it’s not centrally located.
Task force member Nish Goicolea, who is the communication and education chief for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, voiced her concern by saying that if people come for the shooting competitions to Park County, they won’t visit other parts of the Cowboy State.
“I think if you bring people to Campbell County, they will end up in Park County at the end of the day. If you being them to Park County they won’t end up in Campbell County,” she said, according to Cowboy State Daily.
Klessens knows that they are people who are disappointed that their community wasn’t awarded the state shooting complex, but now the focus is on moving forward and hopefully breaking ground in 2025 with completion of the project in 2026.
We are confident [Cody] has the ability to pull together and make this community and state proud of the complex,” Klessens states enthusiastically. He also adds that this has been the best project he’s ever worked on from a collaborative standpoint with the way people came together to get it done.
The next step involves the legislature who will draft a bill and designate Cody as the official site for the state shooting complex, then funding for the project will be assigned.
