The Pawnee Bill Ranch, also known as the Blue Hawk Peak Ranch, was the home of Wild West show entertainer, Gordon W. "Pawnee Bill" Lillie. Located in Pawnee, Oklahoma, it is owned and operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society. [1] The Pawnee Bill Ranch consists of 500 of the original 2000 acres, original outbuildings, a fully furnished historic home, a modern museum, and a herd of bison, Longhorn cattle, and horses. [2]
Pawnee Bill believed strongly in the importance of the bison to the history of the American West and to the Plains Indian culture. He desired to perpetuate and develop the bison and lobbied congress to pass legislation to protect the animal. [3] This was the beginning of the ranch's time as a bison preservation. The ranch is an active member of the Oklahoma Bison Association today.
In December 1910, Lillie and his wife May's dream of a home on top of a hill overlooking a bend in the Black Bear River was realized. [4] The building of their Tudor-style Arts and Crafts home was completed after nearly a year of construction. James Hamilton, an architect from Chester, Pennsylvania, designed the home with input from Lillie and his wife. The home was a beautiful crafted residence, both comfortable and modern. Area laborers worked to construct the nearly 5,300 square feet (490 m2) home from native stone quarried from the Ranch grounds. [2]
Between the years of 1910 and 1926, many other buildings were added to the ranch site. Between 1910 and 1913 the carriage house, log cabin, blacksmith shop, and observation tower were added to the site by the Lillies to accommodate their growing businesses. [1] In 1926, to meet the need for larger livestock accommodations, the Lillies built an impressive three story barn. The barn housed Pawnee Bill's herd of Scottish Shorthorn cattle. Its basement level sheltered the ranch horses while the second floor provided housing for the cattle. The top was used as storage for alfalfa and other feed crops harvested from the ranch property.
On October 10, 1975, the site was included on the National Register of Historic Places under the original title of Blue Hawk Peak Ranch. [2]
Since 1962, Blue Hawk Peak has been owned by the State of Oklahoma. Now operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society, Pawnee Bill Ranch, as it is known today, is open as a historic site dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of history as it relates to Pawnee Bill and May. The site also houses exhibits on ranching, Wild West shows, and the American Indian experience in the Wild West show. In 1970, a museum was built on the site to house the Western collection as well as provide an educational experience for visitors. Open year-round, the Pawnee Bill Ranch provides educational programming for adults and children as well as a yearly re-enactment of Pawnee Bill's Historic Wild West Show. [1]
In 1938, during the latter years of Pawnee Bill's life, he deeded the ranch property to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization for which he had a deep respect. On May 25, 1940, the Boy Scouts of America declined the offer. [5] Since this time, the Pawnee Bill Ranch has been closely associated with the Boy Scouts, serving as a site for numerous Eagle Projects as well annual campouts for local and council groups. There was a Pawnee Bill District in the Will Rogers Council, and later the Cimarron Council, named in his honor for many years.
The American bison or simply bison, also commonly known as the American buffalo or simply buffalo, is an American species of bison that once roamed North America in vast herds. Its historical range, by 9000 BC, is described as the great bison belt, a tract of rich grassland that ran from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, east to the Atlantic Seaboard as far north as New York and south to Georgia and, according to some sources, down to Florida, with sightings in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750. It nearly became extinct by a combination of commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century and introduction of bovine diseases from domestic cattle. With a population in excess of 60 million in the late 18th century, the species was down to just 541 animals by 1889. Recovery efforts expanded in the mid-20th century, with a resurgence to roughly 31,000 wild bison today, largely restricted to a few national parks and reserves. Through multiple reintroductions, the species is now also freely roaming wild in some regions in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with it also being introduced to Yakutia in Russia.
Pawnee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 16,577. Its county seat is Pawnee. The county is named after the Pawnee Nation, whose reservation used to encompass the county prior to allotment in 1893.
Pawnee is a city and county seat of Pawnee County, Oklahoma, United States. The town is northeast of Stillwater at the junction of U.S. Route 64 and State Highway 18.
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory, but he lived for several years in his father's hometown in modern-day Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, before the family returned to the Midwest and settled in the Kansas Territory.
Charles Marion Russell, also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, and landscapes set in the western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures. He is known as "the cowboy artist" and was also a storyteller and author. He became an advocate for Native Americans in the west, supporting the bid by landless Chippewa to have a reservation established for them in Montana. In 1916, Congress passed legislation to create the Rocky Boy Reservation.
Charles Goodnight, also known as Charlie Goodnight, was an American rancher in the American West, perhaps the best known rancher in Texas. He is sometimes known as the "father of the Texas Panhandle." Essayist and historian J. Frank Dobie said that Goodnight "approached greatness more nearly than any other cowman of history." In 1955, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
The Chisholm Trail was a trail used in the post-Civil War era to drive cattle overland from ranches in Texas to Kansas railheads. The trail was established by Black Beaver, a Lenape guide and rancher, and his friend Jesse Chisholm, a merchant. They collected and drove numerous cattle along the trail to Kansas, where they could be shipped east to achieve higher prices. The southern terminus was Red River Station, a trading post near the Red River along the northern border of Texas. The northern terminus was a trading post near Kansas City, Kansas. Chisholm owned both of these posts. In the years of the cattle drives, cowboys would drive large herds from ranches across Texas to the Red River Station and then north to Kansas City.
Antelope Island, with an area of 42 square miles (109 km2), is the largest of ten islands located within the Great Salt Lake, Utah, United States. The island lies in the southeastern portion of the lake, near Salt Lake City and Davis County, and becomes a peninsula when the lake is at extremely low levels. It is protected as Antelope Island State Park.
George Bird Grinnell was an American anthropologist, historian, naturalist, and writer. Grinnell was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1870 and a Ph.D. in 1880. Originally specializing in zoology, he became a prominent early conservationist and student of Native American life. Grinnell has been recognized for his influence on public opinion and work on legislation to preserve the American bison. Mount Grinnell in Glacier National Park in Montana is named after Grinnell.
Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park, known as Scout's Rest Ranch, is a living history state park located west of North Platte, Nebraska. The ranch was established in 1878 with an initial purchase of 160 acres south of the Union Pacific tracks by William Cody. The 4,000 acre ranch was sold in 1911 and has been under the management of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission since 1964. The 25 acre historic state park, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021, is open weekdays from April to October. The house and outbuildings can be toured, including a museum documenting Cody's life from a Pony Express rider to his Wild West shows.
The Plains bison is one of two subspecies/ecotypes of the American bison, the other being the wood bison. A natural population of Plains bison survives in Yellowstone National Park and multiple smaller reintroduced herds of bison in many places in the United States as well as southern portions of the Canadian Prairies.
Wild West shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe that existed around 1870–1920. The shows began as theatrical stage productions and evolved into open-air shows that depicted romanticized stereotypes of cowboys, Plains Indians, army scouts, outlaws, and wild animals that existed in the American West. While some of the storylines and characters were based on true events, others were fictional or sensationalized. Native Americans in particular were portrayed in a sensationalistic and exploitative manner. The shows introduced many western performers and personalities, and romanticized the American frontier, to a wide audience.
Gordon William Lillie, known professionally as Pawnee Bill, was an American showman and performer who specialized in Wild West shows and was known for his short partnership with William "Buffalo" Bill Cody. In 2010, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Mary Emma "May" Manning Lillie was an American sharpshooter and equestrian.
The Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) is an agency of the government of Oklahoma dedicated to promotion and preservation of Oklahoma's history and its people by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge and artifacts of Oklahoma. The mission of the OHS is to collect, preserve, and share the history and culture of the state of Oklahoma and its people.
The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch was a 110,000-acre (45,000 ha) cattle ranch in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma before statehood. Located near modern-day Ponca City, it was founded by Colonel George Washington Miller, a veteran of the Confederate Army, in 1893. The 101 Ranch was the birthplace of the 101 Ranch Wild West Show and one of the early focal points of the oil rush in northeastern Oklahoma. It was the largest diversified farm and ranch in America at the time. Bill Pickett's grave and the White Eagle Monument are located on the ranch grounds. The location of the former working cattle ranch was subdivided and all of its buildings destroyed. An 82-acre (33 ha) area of the ranch is a National Historic Landmark. In 2003, the ranch was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame.
Texas Jack Jr.,, who adopted the name of his rescuer Texas Jack Omohundro, is best known for running a Wild West show and circus where he gave Will Rogers his start as an entertainer.
Bison hunting was an activity fundamental to the economy and society of the Plains Indians peoples who inhabited the vast grasslands on the Interior Plains of North America, prior to the animal's near-extinction in the late nineteenth century following US expansion into the West. Bison hunting was an important spiritual practice and source of material for these groups, especially after the European introduction of the horse in the 16th through 18th centuries enabled new hunting techniques. The species' dramatic decline was the result of habitat loss due to the expansion of ranching and farming in western North America, industrial-scale hunting practiced by non-indigenous hunters, increased indigenous hunting pressure due to non-indigenous demand for bison hides and meat, and cases of deliberate policy by settler governments to destroy the food source of the native Indian peoples during times of conflict.
Frank Joshua North (1840-1885), was an American interpreter, United States Army officer and politician. He is most well known for organizing and leading the Pawnee Scouts from 1865 to 1877. His brother Luther H. North also led the Scouts.
Mamie Francis Hafley (1885–1950), born Elba Mae Ghent, was a performer in Wild West shows and rodeos from about 1901 until 1940. She was famous for her daring horse-diving act that involved jumping off a 50-foot tower into a pool of water, for her sharpshooting ability from the back of a galloping horse, and for her high school horse-riding acts.
