From Oklahoma to Arkansas, the Elusive State

Wednesday morning, we drove north from Oklahoma City to the little town of Pawnee. The landscape became more hilly as we drove, with lots more trees and little farms. The Pawnee Bill Museum and Pawnee Bill’s lovely home sit up on a hill overlooking the road. The museum is small, but has interesting objects from Pawnee Bill’s Wild West and Far East shows, including costumes, saddles, photos, posters and press clippings. When Pawnee Bill and Buffalo Bill joined shows, the “Two Bills” show was more formally known as “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Far East Show,” and it featured performers from all over the world (including Russians, Arabs, and “Hindoos,” as well as an Australian Aborigine with a boomerang). The show also included a man in a tuxedo who rode an ostrich. Really! We saw a photo!

The house is beautiful, and feels very welcoming and comfortable; it’s an Arts and Crafts style home built of Oklahoma stone, and it still contains Gordon and May Lillie’s furniture and decorations. We had a wonderful tour of the house, with an informative and entertaining tour guide. May Lillie seems to have been a remarkable woman; she had a dining room curtain made out of the blanket an elephant wore in the show! We heard stories about Gordon and May, and about their many guests, including Will Rogers and Buffalo Bill, who visited so often that they had their own rooms.

Pawnee Bill, concerned at the rapid destruction of the buffalo population, brought a herd of buffalo to his ranch as well as lobbying the government to protect wild buffalo. Buffalo and cattle still live at the ranch. I photographed them, far in the distance, from outside the fence.

After leaving Pawnee, we drove east to Tulsa, where we stopped for groceries. Then, we continued on into Arkansas. We had entered the address of a campground in Eureka Springs into our GPS, but it finally happened; our GPS went completely crazy. As we approached the campground (we hoped!) on a small road through the woods, she said "Turn right! Turn right!" There was no road on the right or left, only unbroken wilderness. We continued straight, and she recalculated; again, she said, "Turn right," and still there was no road. She tried once more to turn the Gumby van into an off-road vehicle, and then, the road vanished from the little screen and there was just the little car image, travelling through nothingness. "A better route is available," said the GPS lady dejectedly, and then refused to offer any more information. We finally called the campground for directions. "That happens to everyone's GPS units around here," we were told. Hmmmm.... Maybe Arkansas has moved slightly? Plate techtonics? Arkansas's new state motto can be: "Arkansas: Not Quite Where You Expect It to Be."