House On The Hill

Before I get started I feel I have to mention the toll roads in Oklahoma:

THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!!!

You pay a toll to get on AND get off!!!

Maybe things are different out here in the west but I have never paid a toll to use a road in my life. EVER! Now I did once pay a toll to use the bridge crossing the harbor in San Pedro, Ca, but not a road.

T-Rob tells me the funds are used to maintain the highway.

WHAT??!!?? You have got to be kidding me. Oklahoma roads where NOT that great, even in the city. I was shocked.

We don't pay tolls out here in New Mexico and our roads look fantastic. I've never been on a bad road here except maybe a back road on The Rez but never a major state road. From Farmington to Carlsbad and Santa Rosa to Gallup the roads are first rate. Toll free!

You might want to look in to that, T-Rob, and see where that revenue is REALLY going. Call one of your investigative reporters on Action 7 News.

And now back to our program.

Tulsa was great! Next we headed to a town called Pawnee, OK.




Yeah...I was not exactly sure what to think either when I saw this.

We passed on eating here.

Pawnee is famous though, as the home of Chester Gould.

WHO, you ask?

Why, the creator of Dick Tracy of course.



Sadly, the only tribute to him is this wall mural.

Another famous resident was Pawnee Bill.

WHO, you ask? Tsk tsk, don't know your western history eh.

Pawnee Bill was a partner of Buffalo Bill Cody of course. Their show...




... was a huge draw in the early 1900s. It featured cowboys and Indians, Chinese acrobats, Middle Eastern swordsmen, Arab jugglers among others.



Ultimately due to Buffalo Bills shadiness the show was foreclosed on in 1913 and Pawnee Bill returned to live out his days in Pawnee, OK.

What remains of the legendary showman is a museum and Arts and Craft style house on Blue Hawk Peak.

The museum is very small compared to Buffalo Bill Cody's on Lookout Mountain in Denver.

His house; however, is magnificent.

I want this house.

Pictures are not allowed inside so you will have to settle for the outside.

















Below is May and Gordon 'Pawnee Bill' Lillie's original home.




May, his wife, would stay here whenever Buffalo Bill would come to visit as she could not stand him. May was a petite woman from the east herself who eventually became a first rate trick-shot and part of the show.





Sadly, Gordon and May's young son Billy killed himself while trying to learn one of his fathers rope tricks. He hung himself from a well just outside the house.

May Lillie died in an automobile accident when she and Pawnee Bill were returning from a function in Tulsa. Bill never completely recovered himself.



Gordon 'Pawnee Bill' died in his sleep in 1942.

I'm out.

www.pawneebillranch.com

www.legendsofamerica.com/we-pawneebill

UP NEXT: GETTIN' MY KICKS ON ROUTE 66.