101 Ranch and Wild West Show

While visiting Tulsa, on a family vacation, we went to the Gilcrease Museum.  One of the featured exhibits was about the 101 Ranch and Wild West Show.

The 101 Ranch Ranch was founded in 1893, by Col. George W. Miller, in northern Oklahoma Territory.  Along with his wife, Molly, three son, Joe, Zack, and George Jr. and daughter, Alma, they founded what came to known as the "Largest Diversified Farm and Ranch in America'.

In 1901 they started the 101 Wild West Show, which toured across America and  Europe.  Some of those tours were also with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show.  They toured until 1931.  In 1936, during the Great Depression, the ranch failed and was sold off in parcels.  The headquarters is listed as an Oklahoma Historical Site, also on the National Register of Historic Places and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1975.

Among the performers who starred in the show was Bill Pickett.  Bill Picket was the oldest of  13 children and  the son of a former slave.  According to tradition Bill was working as a cowboy in Texas.  A stubborn Texas Longhorn steer refused to head into the corral with the rest of  the herd and kept scattering the other animals.  Bill rode his horse over and jumped from the saddle on to the back of the steer, grabbing the horns he wrestled it to the ground.  The longhorn kept resisting and Bill bit on to its lower lip and slammed the steer to the ground, thus starting the rodeo art of steer wrestling, or bull dogging as they called.

In 1905, Bill along with his hazer, a  young part Cherokee from Oklahoma named Will Rogers(later known as a comedian, actor and public speaker) were performing at a Rodeo in Madison Square Garden.  During that performane, a steer jumped over the arena frence into the crowd creating a mass panic.  Bill and Will charged after the steer to the third balcony level.  Will turned the charging animal and Bill grab the animals horns and wrestled it back down to the arena floor, saving a lot of lives.

(Hazer, a person who rides along side a steer, keepng it in a straight line allowing the steer wrestler the opportunity to grab the  steer.)  In additon to the photos accompaning this article, I will also post related photos seperatley.