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Operating Hours
April through September
Tuesday - Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.*
Sunday & Monday: 1:00 pm - 4:00 p.m.
October through March
Wednesday - Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sundays: 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Closed all National Holidays
The Ranch grounds stay open until sundown each day.
*The museum and mansion stay open on Saturday until 6:30 p.m. during
the Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show.
Pawnee Bill's Mansion
The Pawnee Bill Mansion, completed in 1910, is unequivocally a stereotypical Arts and Crafts house, although its design style was not acknowledged for many, many years. (Primarily because architects and historians thought that the Arts and Crafts movement could not have possibly reached the plains states as early as 1910.) Finally, urged by local enthusiasts of the style who pointed out that Pawnee Bill had traveled coast to coast and could have been quite familiar with the Arts and Crafts construction, not to mention that he hired a Philadelphia architect who most certainly understood the concept, the bungalow was evaluated on a point by point basis. Its status as a true Arts and Crafts structure of the Tudor style has finally been acknowledged.
The home sits today almost exactly as it was when Pawnee Bill passed away. Furnishings, fixtures and construction materials come from all over the world, selected personally by Pawnee Bill and May as they traveled. Of course, in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts movement, many materials came from near-by Oklahoma suppliers. The Lillie's loved to entertain and the house has numerous guest rooms. Buffalo Bill was such a frequent visitor that a room is named for him. Tours of the mansion are given daily and are free. (There is a small fee for large groups, please call 918-762-2513 in advance for arrangements.)
The Big Barn
Pawnee Bill built the three-story barn in 1926 to house his prized Scottish
Shorthorn Cattle and other animals. Hay was stored in the loft. The second
level of the barn, which once housed the cattle, now houses a display of
wagons and farm equipment. A demolition crew discovered the large
advertisement billboard depicting scenes fron the Wild West Show, in 1982 in
Lamont, Oklahoma on the side of a drugstore. It had been covered over with a
facade of brick and mortar.
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Log Cabin
Pawnee Bill originally occupied the land acquired from his friend, Blue Hawk,
a Pawnee Indian, by living in a dugout which no longer exists. He soon built
the cedar log cabin where he and May lived until the mansion was completed.
This cabin was then used frequently as the "men's club" where Pawnee Bill and
his gentlemen guests retired to smoke and play cards.
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Museum & Gift Shop
The only "non-original" bulding on the hill, the museum and gift shop serves
as the hub of all activities. The museum displays artifacts from the wild west
shows and the lives of Pawnee Bill and May Lillie and offers information about
the ranch. A nicely stocked book store and gift shop give visitors the
opportunity to take home a souvenier or acquire a book on the wild west,
cowboys, Native Americans in general and Pawnee Indians in particular. The
building also houses a conference room which hosts a series of hands-on
educational workshops throughout the year as well as providing a
meeting/reception area for special events. As with the other facilites at the
ranch, entrance to the museum is free. Of course donations are accepted and
welcome.
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Other Structures
Other orginal ranch structures on "the hill" include a carriage house which served as a garage for both horse-drawn and motor vehicles. The upstairs was a bunkhouse for ranch hands and the building was also the residence of Jose "Mexican Joe" Barrera, wild west show performer and Pawnee Bill's ranch foreman. This cottage currently serves as the home of the ranch manager.
There is also a blacksmith shop where tools were made and repaired, needed equipment fashioned and horseshoes molded. In addition, Pawnee Bill built an observation tower which offered him a vantage point to survey his surrounding ranch lands. Pawnee Bill referred to the tower as the Indian Flower Shrine. When viewed from above, the structure has the shape of a flower.
Other ranch amenties for the public include kids fishing pond, a big kids fishing pond (availability depending on "where the buffalo roam" and the individual's tolerance for large, generally unfriendly, bovines), a picnic area and two large picnic pavilions which may be reserved for family renuions, company picnics and like activities. There is a small fee for the reserved use of the pavilions. These latter areas are all "off the hill" in what is generally referred to as "the pavilion area."
Bison and longhorns graze in the demonstration pasture.
In their later years, both Pawnee Bill and Buffalo Bill dedicated much of their resources to preserving and re-establishing the American Bison on its native grazing grounds. The Pawnee Bill Ranch Site still maintains a Bison herd which has gained an envious reputation for producing top winning calves year after year. The herd helps pay for itself by selling these calves to other Bison producers at an annual Bison show and sale held in Oklahoma City for all Bison producers in the area. The quality of this herd is a living tribute to the husbandry of the ranch managers, past and present. (Recently a local Bison producer, recognizing the effort that ranch managers over the years had put into this project, donated one of his best bulls to assure a diversity of bloodlines that would allow the herd to continue to improve.) Longhorns were added to give visitors from the city a look at the breed that created the "American Cowboy." Were it not for the ability of these onery, rangy, and sometimes just plain ugly in looks as well as temperament, Mexican Cattle to traverse long distances on skimpy graze and water without losing weight, the cowboy, as we think of him today, would not have existed. A drive-through demonstration pasture on most days allows visitors a close-up and personal look at these American icons.
Oooops! Lost my mama!
Whew! Found 'er!
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