The 101 Ranch - Ponca City, Oklahoma
101 Ranch - A National Historic Landmark, this picnic area commemorates the 101 Ranch which was home to the hundreds of participants in the famous 101 Wild West Show. This show, w

hich traveled throughout the world in the 1920s, featured sharp shooters, trick riders, ropers and Indians in full regalia.

The Pioneer Woman Museum & Statue
In 1927, Marland had the idea that a statue should be erected to honor the spirit of the women who played such a significant role in the settling of this part of the country. He hired 12 artists to submit their own design, for which each was paid $10,000.

The twelve miniature 3-foot statues toured the country by train, traveling to 12 different cities in six months. The statues were viewed by 750,000 people who cast votes for their favorite. The overwhelming favorite was the monument of a confident woman and her young son, created by sculptor Bryant Baker of New York. The statue stands 17 feet high and weighs 12,000 pounds. It is mounted on a pyramid limestone base, making the total height over 30 feet.

BOB CLARK'S SPUR COLLECTION - 308 Main - Fairfax
Housed in the lobby of the First State Bank, more than 150 pairs of spurs are on display. Bank owner Bob Clark received his first pair of spurs from his father who was a cowboy, former western lawman and charter member of the Oklahoma City based Cowboy Hall of Fame. The collection has spurs dating back to 1853 and each have their own history.

Included are spurs belonging to such famous and infamous people as 101 Ranch rodeo and world champion steer roper Henry F. Grammers; Ben Johnson and his father Ben Johnson, Sr., who was a rodeo steer roper; entertainer Johnny Lee Wills; Osage County ranchers R. C. Drummond, Eugene Mullendore, Jr. and E. C. Mullendore III of the famed Cross Bell Ranch; and W. K. "Bill" Hale, an old-time rancher known to the Osage for his "reign of terror". Hale was a cattle baron of Osage County and was later sentenced to prison for plotting the death of several Osage Indians.

The Osage County Historical Museum - Pawhuska
One of the three museums in and around Pawhuska, the Osage County Historical Museum is housed in the historic Santa Fe Depot built in 1922. The museum features exhibits on Indian, pioneer, oil heritage, Boy Scouts and western heritage. Most notably, memorabilia and the history of the first U.S. Boy Scout troop founded in Pawhuska are on exhibit.

Other points of interest located on the museum grounds include two rail cars actually used by the Santa Fe Railroad between Kansas and Pawhuska, two gazebos ( one 1890), and a restored one room school house (Edith Layton School House).

Hours: Monday through Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday and Sunday, 12pm - 5pm

Admission to the museum is free.

Air Conditioned and Wheel Chair Ramps

700 North Lynn Avenue ( One block north of the only stop light on Main Street - US Hiway 60)
(918) 287-9924

The Shidler Jail - Shidler, Oklahoma
Shidler jail was built in 1922 and served all the surrounding communities. This was one of the largest jails around, having 2 cells. Henry Majors was Shidler's first lawman.

The town of Denoya, better known as Whizbang, was the most colorful of the oilfield boomtowns in this area. It was populated by many gamblers and a very rough element. Shootings occurred almost every night and the bank was robbed twice. It was said that a woman wasn't safe to be out on the streets of Whizbang after dark. No one is sure where the name Whizbang originated. Some say it was named after Whizbang Red an infamous lady of the evening. Some say it was named after Whizbang Willie, a favorite magazine of the time. Jose Alvarado, the law of Whizbang, and the Shidler Sheriff had a shutout one night. Alvarado, although a lawman, was known as a cold-blooded killer. He killed Jane Watson who was trying to save merchandise from a burning general store. He claimed he thought she was a looter. Nevertheless, this story ends up with Alvarado opening fire on the Shidler lawman who, coincidentally, had been seeing Jane. Alvarado gets shot in the chest but keeps on firing and hits the Shidler lawman with four of his six shots. Alvarado then ducks for cover to reload but only managed to cover the upper part of his body and was shot several times breaking both legs.

Pawnee Bill Ranch - Pawnee, Oklahoma
Visit the Pawnee Bill Ranch site and see some of the last remnants of the legendary Old West. Drive through the buffalo pasture and view buffalo, longhorn, and elk as they might have looked to a pioneer traveling across the prairie. Walk through the log cabin, blacksmith shop, and the Indian flower shrine and take a walk back into time. Tour Pawnee Bill's dream home and visualize life in 1910 Oklahoma with Pawnee Bill memorabilia, photographs, and much more.

In 1903 Pawnee Bill purchased land from Blue Hawk, his Pawnee friend whom he had met prior to his coming to Indian Territory in 1879, and built a log cabin on the property for himself and May. Their dream home was started on the highest point of the property in 1908 and completed in 1910 when they moved into that building and left the log cabin for ranch hands to use. A blacksmith shop, a large goldfish pond, and an Indian Flower shrine were also constructed on the site during those years. A large three-story barn was added to the property in 1926 to house Pawnee Bill's Scottish shorthorn cattle.

On Blue Hawk Peak at the west edge of Pawnee, Oklahoma, stands a monument to Oklahoma's fabulous past. It is a huge bungalow of rough, buff-colored stone, held together with red tile. Its hardwood interior, selected from the rarest and most expensive mahogany, is arranged so that the spacious rooms are thrown together with nothing buy open arches, pillars, fretwork and portieres to obstruct the vision. The windows, of the finest imported beveled glass, reach to the floor.

A $100,000 Mansion, built in 1910, it stands furnished as in the days of its completion, the living room rugged with Oriental weavings and an occasional monster bear, buffalo, or lion skin; its furniture leathered in red and brown to harmonize with the dark, precious woods, a huge open fireplace with solid bronze andirons and mantel; drop chandeliers of diamond cut glass and gold stained frieze creeping up to an old "Dutch ceiling. Fourteen rooms in all with walls decorated with the most appropriate hangings and portraits.

FREE ADMISSION

Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Sunday and Monday, 1:00 p.m.to 4:00 pm
Closed State Holidays

One half mile west of Pawnee, Oklahoma on U.S. 64

P.O. box 493
Pawnee, OK 74058-0493
918-762-2513

The Original Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show & Festival
The 2 "Bills" were pioneers of the old west. Major Gordon W. Lillie was given the name Pawnee Bill by the Pawnees when he came to Indian Territory as a young boy of seventeen. Pawnee Bill and Buffalo Bill rode together in what was to be thefirst of the Wild West Shows in 1883. "The Only Show of its Kind" - A show that once toured across America and Europe - Thrilling young and old has now become an annual event with a cast of 100's re-enacting the world famous Pawnee Bill Wild West Show. Each summer the hill side on BlueHawk Peak at the Pawnee Bill Buffalo Ranch comes alive with trick riders, trick ropers, shootings, hangings - a battle between the cowboys and Indians ... it's the west at its best.

In conjunction with The Pawnee Bill Wild West Show, come downtown on the square for arts and crafts, entertainment, and rides - Friday through Sunday. FAST DRAW COMPETITION Saturday. The west at its best!

Third weekend in June.

The Tallgrass Prairie - Shidler, Oklahoma
Originally spanning portions of 14 states and covering over 142 million acres, the tallgrass prairie was one of North America's major ecosystems. Today, less than 10% of the original tallgrass prairie remains. Large, unbroken tracts of tallgrass prairie only exist now in the Flint Hills of Oklahoma and Kansas. As a functioning ecosystem, the tallgrass prairie is extinct.

In 1989, The Nature Conservancy purchased the 30,000 acre Barnard Ranch north of Pawhuska, Oklahoma as the cornerstone of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve which now spans over 37,000 acres. The Conservancy's goal is to recreate a functioning tallgrass prairie ecosystem using fire and bison. Fire has been reintroduced to the landscape by using carefully controlled, or "prescribed" burns. Burns are conducted at different times of the year to mimic the original seasonality of presettlement fires. Fire removes dead vegetation, controls encroaching woody vegetation, and increases the vigor and flowering of many plant species.