SHERIDAN, Wyoming — The West isn’t dead here.

That might sound like a cliche, but it’s true.

The cowboys you see walking down Main Street, shopping at Walmart or heading into the old-school Mint Bar are the real thing. They aren’t tourists playing dress-up. They are ranchers and ranch hands whose lives still revolve around cattle, horses and the rugged land where Wyoming’s high plains meet the peaks of the Bighorn Mountains.

Sheridan, the gateway to the Bighorns and seat of the eponymous county, is almost as close to Helena, the capital of Montana, as it is to Cheyenne, its own state capital. Most visitors who pass through are either traversing the interstate highway or driving between Devils Tower and Mount Rushmore to the east and the entrance to Yellowstone in Cody to the west.

Those who make the effort to get here are rewarded with one of the best towns in the West.

Sheridan is defined by a unique chapter of history involving so-called remittance men. In the late 19th century, many of these Englishmen — second or third sons of Britain’s landed aristocracy — ended up in the Bighorns.

Unlikely to inherit family titles and estates because of primogeniture, they were sent away with money to escape scandal or to make their own way. Drawn by the wide-open spaces and a lucrative cattle business, they established sprawling ranches and brought with them a taste for polo.

It should come as no surprise then that the local Anglican parish church, St. Peter’s Episcopal, is one of the most architecturally prominent churches in the area.

To this day, Sheridan remains one of the few places in this part of the country where polo is still played. The Big Horn Polo Club, founded in 1898, holds matches every summer with a grand finale during Don King Days, an annual festival over the extended Labor Day weekend.

The family most synonymous with Sheridan’s remittance men is the Wallop family.

The late Malcolm Wallop, a thrice-elected U.S. senator from Wyoming, descended directly from one of them. His grandfather, Oliver Wallop, the youngest son of the fifth earl of Portsmouth, emigrated from England. After becoming a U.S. citizen and establishing a ranch, he was elected to the Wyoming Legislature. But when he unexpectedly inherited the family’s earldom, he returned to Britain, taking a seat in the House of Lords. That made him one of only a couple of Americans to ever serve in both a state legislature and the British Parliament.

Aristocratic influence from the turn of the last century remains visible beyond polo.

The Brinton Museum in nearby Big Horn sits on land once belonging to the Quarter Circle A Ranch, owned by the Moncrieffes, a Scottish aristocratic family. The museum’s small but notable collection includes Western art — look for works by Frederic Remington — as well as American Indian artifacts and art.

Back in Sheridan, downtown is centered on Main Street. Brick buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries dominate the streetscape, though some older structures are hidden behind post-war facades. Unlike many small towns that lost their retail core to sprawl and big-box stores, the downtown storefronts remain mostly filled.

One institution not to be missed is King’s Saddlery. This family business is part museum, part store and part pilgrimage site for everything cowboy. One of its most famous customers was Queen Elizabeth II, who stopped in during her 1984 visit while vacationing with the sister of then-Sen. Malcolm Wallop.

A few blocks away stands the Sheridan Inn. Built between 1892 and 1893 by none other than Buffalo Bill Cody, the historic hotel has been restored and now operates under Best Western’s Signature Collection brand. It is a destination in its own right.

Within the Bighorns is the 1.1-million-acre Bighorn National Forest, which offers year-round adventure. Summer and fall brings hiking and camping in uncrowded wilderness, while winter offers quiet ski slopes and even a rodeo with skijoring — a sport blending skiing and rodeo.

With its colorful past, still-living cowboy culture, quaint downtown and location at the edge of the Bighorn Mountains, Sheridan embodies the West. It’s not hard to imagine it becoming the next Bozeman, though that might mean sacrificing some of the authenticity that makes it so appealing.

If you go

I flew into Denver and drove six hours north to Sheridan, as airfares into the Mile High City were considerably cheaper than those into Sheridan County Airport. United Airlines, through its regional carrier SkyWest, operates daily flights between Sheridan and Denver.

Book a room at the Sheridan Inn. For a chain alternative, the Fairfield Inn (part of Marriott) is a perfectly fine choice.

Recommended restaurants include Le Rêve Restaurant & Raw Bar, Frackelton’s, Cowboy Cafe and Wyoming’s Rib & Chop House, a regional chain that’s best described as a Rocky Mountain Outback.

Admission to the Brinton Museum is free.

Dennis Lennox writes a travel column for The Christian Post.