Embassy Announces 2013 Visit of Prince Albert II to Wyoming September 28, 2012

Consul Warren addresses Buffalo Bill Historical Center Patrons Ball

Cody, Wyoming to host the Sovereign next year

Nancy Roe, Treasurer of the Prince Albert II Foundation USA and Consul Jonathan Warren at the Camp Monaco exhibit at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody WY

Filling in for Ambassador Noghes who was called away on affairs of State, Consul Jonathan Warren spoke on Friday, Sept 22, 2012 to the distinguished attendees of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center Annual Patron’s Ball in Cody, Wyoming.

The Consul announced on behalf of the Ambassador that HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco has accepted the invitation of the Center and will be attending the Patrons Ball next year.  The visit will mark the 100-year anniversary of the 1913 visit of Prince Albert I to Wyoming.  It will also commemorate the earlier Prince’s establishment of Camp Monaco in the Shoshone Forest with Buffalo Bill Cody.  Camp Monaco was Buffalo Bill’s last great hunting camp, and is a major exhibit within the Buffalo Bill Museum today.

Consul Jonathan Warren and Wyoming Governor Matt Mead at the BBHC Patrons Ball, Cody, Wyoming September 2013

The royal visit in 2013 will mark the launch of an annual prize to be given in biodiversity study of the greater Yellowstone system, in cooperation with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.

Distinguished guests included Vice President Cheney, Senator Alan Simpson, Governor Matt Mead, Susan Eisenhower and many others.  Consul Warren’s brother, Buffalo Bill scholar and author of Buffalo Bill’s America:  William Cody and the Wild West Show, Professor Louis Warren was invited by the Buffalo Bill Historical Center as well.  Professor Warren gave interviews and enjoyed the hospitality of Cody with Consul Warren.

ENTIRE SPEECH GIVEN BY CONSUL WARREN

Professor Louis Warren, General Tim White, Consul Jonathan Warren at Camp Monaco Trailhead Lodge, Cody, Wyoming

Mr. Vice President, Governors, Congressmen, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

Thank you for allowing me a few moments to speak on behalf of His Excellency Ambassador Noghés, who deeply regrets that he could not be with us here tonight.

If you have not met the Ambassador, I hope you have the opportunity to do so very soon.  He is a wonderful career diplomat and the first Ambassador of Monaco ever accredited to the United States. 

Ambassador Noghés is passionate about Wyoming and about the long relationship between the Principality and the American west.  In fact, the Ambassador worked to re-open the Consulate of Monaco in Las Vegas and to make it serve Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.

The Consulate was first opened in 1956, after Prince Rainier III appointed Captain Henry Leigh Hunt to the post.  Captain Hunt’s consular immunities were signed into recognition of the Law of Nations by President Dwight Eisenhower, whose distinguished granddaughter graces the very table at which I dine tonight.  Ambassador Noghés intends to build on this legacy.

And now to the Ambassador’s remarks:

Distinguished Guests and dear friends of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center,

I trust our dear Consul Jonathan Warren, whose brother is Louis Warren, the famous Bill Cody’s historian, will express my regrets better than I could, for not being with you tonight at the Patron’s Ball.

As you may know, 2013 will be a special year for us all as we will celebrate, with enormous pride and pleasure, the centennial of the visit to Cody of one of our most illustrious princes of Monaco.  Albert I, the Scholarly Prince and co-founder of oceanography, came in September 1913 to Cody and went Hunting with the Iconic Buffalo Bill.

Dear friends, I have the distinct honor of informing you that Prince Albert II of Monaco, his great, great-grandson, has accepted the kind invitation of the governor and the Board of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center to participate in his celebration and will be present here next year!

I wish to thank the members of the Board who are wonderful friends in the venture, among them:  Chairman Collier, Mrs. Naoma Tate and Ambassador Bodini.  I would like also to salute some of the exceptional partners:  Dr. Bruce Eldredge, Executive Director and CEO of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Dr. Charles Preston, founding Curator of the Draper Museum of Natural History and General Tim White, Director of Content and Programming, who is my most precious adviser.

Like William Cody, Prince Albert I was a visionary.  He was concerned with the deforestation and also overfishing the oceans.  In the same way, Prince Albert II has become a formidable advocate of the environment.  One of the reasons for that is that he spent many vacations in American summer camps when was younger.  Six years ago he created the Prince Albert II Foundation which is represented here tonight by a distinguished member of its US Board, Mrs. Nancy Roe.

Prince Albert II and his foundation have recently decided to honor the biodiversity in the greater Yellowstone system by awarding, for the first time next year, an important price of biodiversity which will soon be announced.  in our minds, there will be no better way to pay tribute to this extraordinary ecosystem and to the pioneers who understood its immense value for mankind.

Dear friends, in 1913, Prince Albert I and Bill Cody created Camp Monaco in the Shoshone Forest.  the tree trunk where the name of the camp was engraved is in the Buffalo Bill Museum today.  This has created a permanent link between Wyoming and Monaco and long lasting friendship which is worth celebrating – with panache!

I look forward to celebrating this centennial with you next year.  In the meantime, I wish you a very pleasant night at the Patron’s Ball.

Thank you,

Gilles Noghes

Ambassador of HSH the Prince of Monaco