Prince Albert II of Monaco arrives in Cody, Wyoming, today, following in the boot steps of his great, great grandfather, Prince Albert I. The latest Albert is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Albert I’s legendary hunting trip with William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and to present the inaugural Camp Monaco Prize, a new scientific research grant supporting biodiversity studies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

I just returned from a memorable trip to Cody and narrowly missed seeing the prince, thus sparing His Serene Highness a big howdy from all the folks in Philly, hometown of his mother, Princess Grace.

On this trip, Albert II is being hosted by the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the best darn museum for all things representing the uniquely American West. It’s a wonderful place to explore the largest collection of firearms in the U.S., as well as Native American culture, natural history, art and the colorful life of Buffalo Bill, the most famous man in the world at the turn of the last century. (More on that in a future post.)

In 1913, Albert I was a pioneer of sorts, the first European head of state to visit the United States. He traveled to Wyoming by train, where he joined Buffalo Bill and a group of pals for a two-week game-hunting excursion into the Rocky Mountains near Yellowstone Park.

Three sponsoring institutions – the  Center of the West’s Draper Natural History Museum, the University of Wyoming’s Biodiversity Institute, and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation-USA – joined together to select the winning proposal for the inaugural Camp Monaco Prize. The project focuses on finding new ways to monitor and safeguard migratory elk in Greater Yellowstone,  knowledge that could benefit other important conservation areas across the globe.

During his visit, Albert II will revisit the hunting camp Albert I and Buffalo Bill set up in 1913, near what is now Yellowstone National Park. He will plant trees, tour the beautiful park and wrap up his stay with a grand soiree on Sept. 21, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s annual Patrons Ball.