Gordon William (Pawnee Bill) and May Manning Lillie

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 10, 2024

1. Gordon William (Pawnee Bill) and May Manning Lillie Marker

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Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 10, 2024

2. Gordon William (Pawnee Bill) and May Manning Lillie Marker

The marker is mounted on the right side of the Pawnee Bill Mansion south entrance.

From the National Register Nomination prepared by Kent Ruth, Oklahoma Historical Society, 5/1975:
On this commanding point Pawnee Bill built a rambling log cabin he named Blue Hawk Peak for his Indian friend. Here the Lillies lived until 1910 when their new stone bungalow was built. The comfortably rustic "mansion" remained their home until they died, May in 1936, Pawnee Bill in 1242. When his Wild West Show finally went under in 1913 Pawnee Bill retired to Blue Hawk Peak and concentrated on building up and promoting his herds of bison and cattle. When the state purchased the ranch in 1961, it stood much as it had when Pawnee Bill died twenty years before. The house, outbuildings, garden, original log cabin, and three-story stone-and-steel barn were essentially unchanged.

Excerpt:  Gordon William Lillie (February 14, 1860 – February 3, 1942), known professionally as Pawnee Bill,

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 10, 2024

3. Pawnee Bill Mansion (south elevation)

The marker is mounted near the center of the south facade.

was an American showman and performer who specialized in Wild West shows. By the age of 19, he was working on the Pawnee Indian agency in Indian Territory. In 1883, he was given the chance to work as the Pawnee interpreter with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. His work with the show was the origin of his nickname as "Pawnee Bill".

After courting for two years, Lillie married May Manning in 1886, a petite Quaker from Pennsylvania, who was younger by nine years, a graduate of Smith College, and the daughter of a wealthy Philadelphia physician. At first, her parents objected to their refined young daughter marrying a cowboy, but eventually they agreed to the union. While Gordon Lillie was on tour, May supervised their buffalo ranch, now known as Pawnee Bill Ranch. The Lillies completed work on their Arts-and-Crafts style home on Blue Hawk Peak in 1910.

(By Erin Glanville Brown) Excerpt:  In 1888 he began touring the country with "Pawnee Bill's Wild West." In that same year,

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Pawnee Bill was named leader of the Boomer Movement, a group dedicated to the opening of Oklahoma's Unassigned Lands to white settlement. He led a group of four thousand in the Land Run of April 22, 1889, into the center of present Kingfisher County. His involvement in the opening of the Unassigned Lands brought Pawnee Bill into the national spotlight, and he reestablished a successful Wild West show called "Pawnee Bill's Historical Wild West, Indian Museum and Encampment," which traveled the United States and Europe, starring May Lillie as the Champion Horseback Shot of the West. In 1908 he joined forces with Buffalo Bill Cody, forming "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Pawnee Bill's Great Far East," a Wild West show that had no equal at that time.

He dedicated his life to preserving the perceived traditions of the West, but he also envisioned the progress that automobiles and modern highways could bring. He was president of the Highway 64 Association, and U.S. Highway 64 through Oklahoma was originally called "The Pawnee Bill Route." Pawnee Bill became devoted to the preservation of the buffalo (American bison), an animal he felt most characteristic of Oklahoma and the American West. He established a herd on his ranch near Pawnee and lobbied Congress to pass legislation to protect the animal. His efforts eventually led to the opening of the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge. Pawnee Bill was a promoter of Oklahoma, and it can be argued that no other Oklahoman perpetuated the mythical Wild West as did Gordon William Lillie.