Pecos Bill is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cowboyA cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century became a figure of special significance and legend. A subtype, called a wrangler,...
, apocryphally immortalized in numerous
tall taleA tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some such stories are exaggerations of actual events, fish stories such as, "that fish was so big, why I tell ya', it nearly sank the boat when I pulled it in!" Other tall tales are completely fictional...
s of the Old West during American westward expansion into the Southwest of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Their stories were probably invented by
Edward O'ReillyEdward O'Reilly was an Irish scholar in the first half of the 1800s.Born in Harold's Cross, Dublin, of recent Cavan parentage, O'Reilly undertook the compilation of the work for which he is best remembered, his Irish-English Dictionary published in 1817...
in the early 20th Century and are considered to be an example of
fakeloreFakelore is inauthentic, manufactured folklore presented as if it were genuinely traditional. The term can refer to new stories or songs made up, or to folklore that is reworked and modified for modern tastes...
. Pecos Bill was a late addition to the "big man" idea of characters such as
Paul BunyanPaul Bunyan is a mythological lumberjack who is usually believed to be a giant as well as a lumberjack of unusual skill. He resides in the small rural town of Bear Lake, Michigan. The character was first documented in the work of American journalist James MacGillivray...
or
John HenryJohn Henry is an American folk hero, famous for having raced against a steam powered hammer and won, only to die in victory with his hammer in his hand...
.
The stories were first published in 1916 by
Edward O'ReillyEdward O'Reilly was an Irish scholar in the first half of the 1800s.Born in Harold's Cross, Dublin, of recent Cavan parentage, O'Reilly undertook the compilation of the work for which he is best remembered, his Irish-English Dictionary published in 1817...
for
The Century MagazineThe Century Magazine was first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City as a successor to Scribner's Monthly Magazine...
, and collected and reprinted in 1923 in the book
Saga of Pecos Bill (1923).
Pecos Bill is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cowboyA cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century became a figure of special significance and legend. A subtype, called a wrangler,...
, apocryphally immortalized in numerous
tall taleA tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some such stories are exaggerations of actual events, fish stories such as, "that fish was so big, why I tell ya', it nearly sank the boat when I pulled it in!" Other tall tales are completely fictional...
s of the Old West during American westward expansion into the Southwest of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Their stories were probably invented by
Edward O'ReillyEdward O'Reilly was an Irish scholar in the first half of the 1800s.Born in Harold's Cross, Dublin, of recent Cavan parentage, O'Reilly undertook the compilation of the work for which he is best remembered, his Irish-English Dictionary published in 1817...
in the early 20th Century and are considered to be an example of
fakeloreFakelore is inauthentic, manufactured folklore presented as if it were genuinely traditional. The term can refer to new stories or songs made up, or to folklore that is reworked and modified for modern tastes...
. Pecos Bill was a late addition to the "big man" idea of characters such as
Paul BunyanPaul Bunyan is a mythological lumberjack who is usually believed to be a giant as well as a lumberjack of unusual skill. He resides in the small rural town of Bear Lake, Michigan. The character was first documented in the work of American journalist James MacGillivray...
or
John HenryJohn Henry is an American folk hero, famous for having raced against a steam powered hammer and won, only to die in victory with his hammer in his hand...
.
History
The stories were first published in 1916 by
Edward O'ReillyEdward O'Reilly was an Irish scholar in the first half of the 1800s.Born in Harold's Cross, Dublin, of recent Cavan parentage, O'Reilly undertook the compilation of the work for which he is best remembered, his Irish-English Dictionary published in 1817...
for
The Century MagazineThe Century Magazine was first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City as a successor to Scribner's Monthly Magazine...
, and collected and reprinted in 1923 in the book
Saga of Pecos Bill (1923). O'Reilly said they were part of an oral tradition told by cowboys during the westward expansion and settlement of the southwest including Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. However American folklorist Richard M. Dorson found that O'Reilly invented the stories as "
fakeloreFakelore is inauthentic, manufactured folklore presented as if it were genuinely traditional. The term can refer to new stories or songs made up, or to folklore that is reworked and modified for modern tastes...
", and later writers either borrowed tales from O'Reilly or added further adventures of their own invention to the cycle. One of the most well known versions of the Pecos Bill stories is by
James Cloyd BowmanJames Cloyd Bowman was an American teacher and author primarily of children's books, college text books and journals. Born in Leipsic, Ohio. Bowman grew up in Ohio and attended Ohio Northern University with graduate studies at Harvard University...
in
Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Time (1937) which won the Newbery Honor in 1938, and republished in 2007.
Edward "Tex" O'Reilly co-authored a cartoon strip with cartoonist Jack A Warren also known as Alonzo Vincent Warren, between 1929 and 1938. When O' Reilly died in 1938, Warren began a strip titled "Pecos Pete." This was a story about "Pecos Bill'" who had received a "lump on the naggan" which caused him amnesia. The cartoons originally were published in 'The Sun' and were later syndicated.
Pecos Bill made the leap to film in the 1948
DisneyThe Walt Disney Company , often simply known as Disney, is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world, known for its family-friendly products...
animated feature
Melody TimeMelody Time is an animated feature produced by Walt Disney and released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures...
. He was portrayed by
Patrick SwayzePatrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best-known for his roles as romantic leading men in the films Dirty Dancing and Ghost and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries...
in Disney's 1995 film Tall Tale.
"Pecos Bill" was also the nickname of Civil War general William Shafter, although this was before O'Reilly created the legend. Shafter was considered a hero in Texas and even had some legendary poetry written about how tough he was.
Description
Like many tall tales, Pecos Bill stories involve combinations of super feats of courage and prowess (such as riding a
tornadoA tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air which is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud...
whirlwind like a
broncoBronco, or bronc, is a term used in the United States, northern Mexico and Canada to refer to an untrained horse or one that habitually bucks. It may refer to a feral horse that has lived in the wild its entire life, but is also used to refer to domestic horses not yet fully trained to saddle, and...
and using a
rattlesnakeRattlesnakes are a group of venomous snakes, genera Crotalus and Sistrurus. They belong to the subfamily of venomous snakes known commonly as pit vipers.-Overview:...
for a
lassoA lasso , alternatively , also referred to as a lariat, riata, or reata , is a loop of rope that is designed to be thrown around a target and tighten when pulled. It is a well-known tool of the American cowboy. The word is also a verb; to lasso is to successfully throw the loop of rope around...
) and explaining natural phenomena (such as why coyotes howl at the moon, digging the
Rio GrandeThe Rio Grande is a river that forms part of the border between the United States and Mexico. At long, it is the fourth-longest river system in the United States...
, and how the
Painted DesertPainted Desert is the name for a broad area of badlands located in Northern Arizona in the United States. The desert stretches from the Grand Canyon National Park into the Petrified Forest National Park and runs roughly astride and just north of the Little Colorado and the Puerco Rivers...
became so colorful).
According to the legend, Pecos Bill was born in Texas in the 1830's. Pecos Bill was traveling in a
covered wagonThe covered wagon is an icon of the American Old West.Although covered wagons were commonly used for shorter moves within the United States, in the mid-nineteenth century thousands of Americans took them across the Great Plains to Oregon and California...
as an infant when he fell out unnoticed by the rest of his family near the
Pecos RiverThe Pecos River or Rio Pecos, as it is sometimes known in New Mexico, arises near Pecos, New Mexico, United States, and flows for through the eastern portion of that state and neighboring Texas before it empties into the Rio Grande near Del Rio...
. He was taken in by a pack of coyotes who were said to have raised him.
Years later he was found by his brother, who convinced him he was not a coyote himself.
He grew up to become a cowboy and has a horse, Widow Maker (so named, because no other man except Pecos Bill could ride him and survive, thus leaving the wife of any married man who tried, a "widow"). Pecos Bill also had a love interest named Slue-Foot Sue, both Widow Maker and Slue-Foot Sue are equally as idealized as Pecos Bill. It is also said Pecos sometimes rode a mountain lion instead of a horse.
After a courtship with Slue-Foot Sue where, among other things, Pecos Bill shoots all the stars from the sky, except for one which becomes the
Lone Star- Politics :*Lone Star Flag, the flag of Texas**Lone Star State, an official nickname of Texas- Cities :*Lone Star, Texas, a city in east Texas, USA*Lone Star, California**Lone Star, Fresno County, California**Lone Star, Glenn County, California...
, he proposes to Sue who insisted on riding Widow Maker sometime before, during or after the wedding depending on variations in the story.
Widow Maker, jealous of no longer having Bill's undivided attention, bounces Sue off, who lands on her
bustleA bustle is a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman's dress, occurring predominantly between the mid- to late 1800s. Bustles were worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. Heavy fabric tended to...
which begins bouncing her higher and higher, eventually hitting her head on the moon following a failed attempt to lasso her because Widow Maker didn't want her on his back again. After Slue-Foot Sue had been bouncing for days, Pecos Bill realized that she would starve to death, so he lassoed her with the rattlesnake and brought her back down. Though it is said that Bill was married many times, Widow Maker knew what he did to her was wrong so he apologized. Bowman's version of the story are more congenial, with Sue eventually recovering from the bounces, but so traumatized by the experience she flicks off cowboys and Bill.
See also
Other "Big Men"
- Big Joe Mufferaw
Big Joe Mufferaw was a French Canadian folk hero from the Ottawa Valley, perhaps best known today as the hero of a song by Stompin' Tom Connors. Like Paul Bunyan, he made his living chopping down trees. The name is also sometimes spelled Muffero, Muffera, and Montferrand...
a.k.a. Jos. Montferrand of the Ottawa Valley
- Gargantua
- Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan is a mythological lumberjack who is usually believed to be a giant as well as a lumberjack of unusual skill. He resides in the small rural town of Bear Lake, Michigan. The character was first documented in the work of American journalist James MacGillivray...
- Iron John
"Iron John" is a German fairy tale found in the collections of the Brothers Grimm, tale number 136, about a wild man and a prince...
of Michigan
- John Henry
John Henry is an American folk hero, famous for having raced against a steam powered hammer and won, only to die in victory with his hammer in his hand...
- Johnny Kaw
Johnny Kaw is a mythical Kansas settler and the subject of a number of Paul Bunyan-esque tall tales about the settling of the territory.The legend of Johnny Kaw was created in 1955 by George Filinger, a professor of horticulture at Kansas State University, to celebrate the centennial of Manhattan,...
- Mike Fink
Mike Fink, called "king of the keelboaters", was a semi-legendary brawler and boatman who exemplified the tough and hard-drinking men who ran keelboats up and down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers...
- Hiawatha
Hiawatha , who lived in the 1100s, 1400s, or 1500s, and was variously a leader of the Onondaga and Mohawk nations of Native Americans....
- Jack Magyar
- Joe Magarac
Joe Magarac is purportedly a legendary American folk hero who was a steelworker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Magarac first appeared in print in a 1931 Scribner's Magazine article by Owen Francis, who said he heard the story from immigrant steelworkers in Pittsburgh area steel mills...
- Fionn mac Cumhaill
Fionn mac Cumhaill Fionn mac Cumhaill Fionn mac Cumhaill ( (Northern), (Western), (Southern), anglicised (in early texts Finn or Find mac Cumail or mac Umaill, anglicised to Finn McCool in the Romantic Period of the 1800s) was a mythical hunter-warrior of Irish mythology, occurring also in the...
- Davy Crockett
David Crockett was a celebrated 19th-century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician; referred to in popular culture as Davy Crockett and often by the epithet “King of the Wild Frontier.” He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives, served in the Texas...
- Venture Smith
Venture Smith was an African captive brought to the American colonies as a child. His history was documented when he gave a narrative of his life to a schoolteacher, who wrote it down and published it under the title A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But...
, the black Paul Bunyan
- Bill Brasky
Bill Brasky was the subject of a series of sketches on the television sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live between 1996 and 1998. The sketches were written by cast member Will Ferrell and writer Adam McKay.-Format:...
- Dusty 'Doc' Ballard
- Alfred Bulltop Stormalong
Captain Alfred Bulltop Stormalong was an American folk hero and the subject of numerous nautical-themed tall tales originating in Massachusetts...
- Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill, a 1995 film starring Patrick Swayze
Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best-known for his roles as romantic leading men in the films Dirty Dancing and Ghost and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries...
Slue-Foot Sue
Sources
- James Cloyd Bowman
James Cloyd Bowman was an American teacher and author primarily of children's books, college text books and journals. Born in Leipsic, Ohio. Bowman grew up in Ohio and attended Ohio Northern University with graduate studies at Harvard University...
. Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Time. orig. 1937, republished by The New York Review, 2007. ISBN 978-1-59017-224-7
- S. E. Schlosser. Pecos Bill. A few stories online.