Pawnee Bill Ranch
The Pawnee Bill Ranch was the home of Wild West Show entertainer, Gordon W. "Pawnee Bill" Lillie. 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]
History of Blue Hawk Peak
In 1903, Pawnee Bill purchased land from his friend, Blue Hawk, an elder in the Pawnee tribe. There he established his buffalo ranch and named it Blue Hawk Peak to honor his friend.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5] 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 home from native stone quarried from the Ranch grounds.[2]
On October 10, 1975, the site was included on the National Register of Historic Places under the original title of Blue Hawk Peak Ranch, which is what it is still called today.[2]
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Pawnee Oklahoma
References
- ^ [1] Pawnee Bill Ranch Site, Oklahoma Historical Society.
- ^ a b c [2] National Register of Historic Places nomination. Cite error: The named reference "test/" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Shirley, Glenn. Pawnee Bill, a Biography of Gordon W. Lillie. Western Publishers, Stillwater, OK. 1993.
- ^ McHugh, Tom. The Time of the Buffalo. Bison Books, University of Nebraska. 1972.
- ^ [3] Tulsa World Article, January 31, 2010.
Links
- www.pawneebillranch.org - The official site of the Pawnee Bill Ranch, owned and managed by the Oklahoma Historical Society.
- http://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.5773 - The Pawnee Bill Ranch page operated by TravelOK.com, the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department's official site.
- http://www.ocgi.okstate.edu/shpo/nhrpdfs/75001571.pdf - The nomination form for Blue Hawk Peak on the National Register of Historic Places.
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