CODY - Building the Buffalo Bill Historical Center's endowment, leveraging technology and using its rural location as an advantage are ways new director Bruce Eldredge hopes the museum can increase its national stature.

"Right now, this museum is among the top 50 or 100 in the nation. My goal is to get it in the top 10 or 15," said Eldredge, who arrived in Cody last week with his wife, Jan. He began work Monday as the center's new chief executive officer and executive director.

Eldredge, 55, worked most recently as the head of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, Wash., and has more than 30 years of experience in the museum field.

Although he has spent just a few days on the job, working mainly to get acclimated, Eldredge said he has been pondering the "one big idea" of elevating the center's national profile to the highest level.

"That may not be easy," but it's not impossible, and worth trying, he said.

"The museum itself needs a unified direction, but that will take time," he said.

Eldredge said he sees the center as more than a regional museum.

"I think we are a national museum, and we are looked to as the largest museum related to the West in the United States," he said.

One way the center differs from the nation's most highly acclaimed museums is its rural location, which can be a challenge, but should also be viewed as an asset, he said.

"It's also what separates us from every other major museum in the U.S. So we have to think about how we can take our location and turn it into a positive.

"A great Western museum should reflect Western values, traditions, culture, history, art and natural science, and we have all of that here," he said.

Finding new ways to showcase the museum's holdings, including through the Internet and other technologies, will be another important goal, Eldredge said.

"Museums used to be about the preservation of objects and education. Now, I think we're about access. People want to be able to go online and see our stuff, share our stuff with others, or even tell us about our own stuff.

"That's very different from the way museums operated 50 years ago," he said.

Building the financial endowment is another area of focus for Eldredge.

"We need a larger endowment and a larger pool of donors. Our donors and the community of Cody have been very generous, but we will need more of them on a national level," he said.

Eldredge said he continues to think about the "big ideas" behind the center's future, but actually being in Cody has clearly made a big impression on him.

"You can look out from our parking lot and see horses. We are in the very area we are talking about as an institution. It's not someplace artificial.

"We are in the West and of the West, and we want you to find out about our West," he said, smiling broadly after the spontaneous comment.

"Hey, that's pretty good! Write that down," he said.