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 Growing out of the imagination of southwestern cowboys, Pecos Bill personifies the frontier virtues of courage, strength, and humor. The mythical folk hero, first written about in 1923 by Edward O’Reilly, is said to have been based on tales told by range hands at the end of a long day of tending cattle.
Personifying the frontier spirit of the American West, the legendary "man” displayed superhuman feats that grew with each telling around the campfire.
Born in the 1830’s, Pecos Bill was the youngest of eighteen children of a Texas pioneer, and was so tough even as a baby, that he used a bowie knife as a teething ring and made wild animals his playmates as a toddler. When the boy was very young, he fell out of his parents’ wagon as they were crossing the Pecos River and was swept away by the current. Rescued by coyotes, the boy was raised by the wild animals.
Years later when he was found by his brother, living with the coyotes, his sibling had to convince him that he wasn’t a coyote himself. When Bill returned to civilization he became an excellent cowhand, credited with inventing the branding iron, the lasso, cowboy songs to soothe the cattle, and many other tips and tricks. He also appeared in other tales as a railroad man, a buffalo hunter, and an oilfield worker.
But bigger than his work ethic and skills were the tales of phenomenal feats such as riding a cyclone, roping an entire herd at one time, using a rattlesnake as a whip, and harnessing the Rio Grande River to water his ranch. He was so tough that he often rode a mountain lion rather than his favorite horse, the Widow-Maker.
Somewhere along the line, ole’ Pecos Bill met and married a woman named Slue-Foot Sue, who he found riding down the Rio Grande River on a catfish as large as a whale.
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