Buffalo and memorabilia also highlight this Oklahoma site.
Wild West entertainer extraordinaire Buffalo Bill Cody came first, but the showman known as Pawnee Bill soon followed, also capturing the public’s imagination. The two Bills worked together in Cody’s Wild West extravaganza and later became partners in a merged show. While Buffalo Bill will forever overshadow Pawnee Bill, being No. 2 in the Wild West business wasn’t half bad for this colorful fellow from Bloomington, Ill., who was born on February 14, 1860, with the less evocative handle Gordon William Lillie. His touring show was going strong in 1902 when he began building a ranch on Oklahoma Territory land he had purchased from Pawnee Indian friend Blue Hawk. He intended it as a prairie preserve for the endangered buffalo. Today his ranch and home are open to the public as a museum that celebrates his life and accomplishments. And the buffalo still roam the ranch.
Lillie was 13 when he moved with his family from Illinois to Wellington, Kan., wintering ground of the Pawnees. There he struck up a relationship with the tribe, learning its language and way of life and befriending Blue Hawk.The Pawnees soon relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), and the young man went there to visit Blue Hawk. He got a job in the local quarry to provide building material for the reservation and was allowed to accompany Pawnees on hunts. Lillie went on to become a teacher at the Pawnee Agency, and then interpreter and secretary to Indian agent Major Edward Bowman.
When William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody started his Wild West in 1883 and sought to showcase a half-dozen Pawnees, Lillie escorted them to Omaha, Neb., and stayed on as their interpreter. This was the beginning of a long friendship with Cody. It also led Lillie to his future wife, teenager Mary Emma “May” Manning, whom he met at a show in Philadelphia. “It was love at first sight, and I knew that she was the girl for me,” Lillie later said. The two maintained a long-distance courtship for two years while he traveled with Cody’s Wild West and she attended Smith College. Following May’s graduation, they married in August 1886.
Drawing on his Wild West experience, and with the support and encouragement of the Manning family, Lillie organized Pawnee Bill’s Historic WildWest, which began touring the country on May 24, 1888. May Lillie headlined as the “Champion Girl Horseback Shot of the West,” but the show was a bust. The next year Pawnee Bill led some 3,000 eager “Boomers” in the great Oklahoma Land Rush across what is now Kingfisher County. That gave him national attention, and when he launched his retooled Pawnee Bill’s Historical Wild West Indian Museum and Encampment, it was a big hit, running well into the 20th century and proving strong competition for Cody’s Wild West.
Early in the new century financial woes and marketing pressures prompted the two Bills to join forces. Pawnee Bill purchased a one-third interest in Cody’s production for $50,000, and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Great Far East opened in 1909 at Madison Square Garden. The Bills eventually became equal partners and toured worldwide for five fairly successful years. During a break in the 1910 season Pawnee Bill and May hosted 50 guests, including Buffalo Bill, at a housewarming for their newly built Blue Hawk Peak Ranch.
After the partnership and show ended in 1913 (Cody made his showbiz farewell with the Sells-Floto Circus in the 1914–15 season), Pawnee Bill retired to his ranch to groom his buffalo herd and raise cattle. May died in a 1936 car accident, and Pawnee Bill died in his sleep in 1942 at age 81, leaving his estate to the Boy Scouts of America. The state of Oklahoma purchased the property in 1961 and continues to operate the museum.
The Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum, a half-mile west of Pawnee, Okla., centers on Bill and May’s 14-room dream home, filled with original furnishings and personal Lillie possessions, including medals May won for her shooting skills and a silver tea service given to the couple on their 25th wedding anniversary. The museum also features posters, memorabilia and artifacts from Pawnee Bill’s Wild West shows. Visitors can tour the 500-acre property in their own vehicles and take in the cattle and buffalo. Also see the log cabin Bill and May occupied when they first purchased the land, a lookout tower and a three-story stone barn. To learn more call 918-762-2513 or visit www.pawneebillranch.org.
Originally published in the October 2012 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
