Get glimpse of Wild West at Pawnee Bill museum, ranch
As the name implies, the Pawnee Bill Ranch Historic Site and Museum is not just a museum, nor is it just a ranch. It is a complex focusing on the vibrant and fascinating history of important buildings and their contents.
When people pull into the property and top Blue Hawk Peak, they can see not only the mansion, which was built in 1910, but also the museum building; an actual working blacksmith shop; a log cabin Pawnee Bill built before the mansion and the last structure Pawnee Bill built in 1926 to house his Scottish shorthorn cattle and horses.
Gordon William Lillie came to the Oklahoma/Indian Territory in 1875 with a passionate love of the West and a gift for showmanship. The rest, as they say, is history. His successful Wild West show joined forces with Buffalo Bill’s show, and the “Two Bills” traveled the globe with trick ropers and riders, gunfighters and sharpshooters. Today, the spirit of Pawnee Bill remains in the rolling hills and running bison and horses, which surround the home site in Pawnee.
The museum is a wonderful collection of treasures from the Wild West show and plays a crucial part of preserving the backstory of Pawnee Bill. Upon my first visit to the museum years ago, I would try and imagine the excitement and energy when this show rolled into town with all the performers. Pawnee Bill’s wife, Mae, became the ultimate cowgirl and sharpshooter after her marriage to Pawnee Bill. The museum has an extraordinary black-and-white photograph of all 500 people who performed in the show. They had over a thousand horses, and the troupe would travel all over the country with what has been described as this phenomenal Wild West show. The show was the No. 1 entertainment at the time, too!
But the mansion is what I always go back to because it is nearly as it was when Pawnee Bill and Mae lived there. “When you walk in, it is like they are out for the day,” says Ronny Brown, site director for the Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum. “It is truly like they are here. You get the feeling that they’re here, and you can see everything in the home is original, even down to the little knickknacks. So, that is pretty amazing for a historic home.”
And it is an amazingly interesting historic home. You can find the gold dishes that were presented to Pawnee Bill and his wife on their 50th wedding anniversary. Of course, “they were friends with lots of people in this area of the state,” Brown says. “Frank Phillips was a good friend as were several Tulsa oil men at the time. They presented him with a gold-tinted car. Will Rogers was a frequent visitor to the ranch, and he even had his own bedroom on the second floor of the house.”
“Not only is this the dream house of Gordon Lillie and his wife, Mae, but we also here at the museum teach history in broad strokes, because we are not only the history of Oklahoma, but also the history of the United States,” says Anna Davis, historical interpreter for the Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum.
“We are kind of a generational museum because we’ve been around since
1961. So, people might have come through on that first day of operation. And suddenly, they are coming back, 30, 40 years later because their grandparents brought them here. And now they are bringing children and grandchildren of their own.”
And today, people from not only across the country come here, but visitors from Japan, China and all of Europe come to the Pawnee Bill ranch. Brown says “They are still interested in the Western culture and Wild West history. And when I give a tour or take a school group through the pasture to see the horses and buffalo, I am so proud as an Oklahoman to say of the three biggest shows that toured the world, two of them were from Oklahoma, and not too far apart.”
And I, personally, feel that is something quite amazing to think about in this day and time! For more information on the Pawnee Bill Ranch Historic Site and Museum, go to Travelok.com.