Bill Pickett

• Born: December 5, 1870
• Birthplace: Jenks-Branch, Travis County, Texas
• Died: April 2, 1932
• Place of death: Ponca City, Oklahoma

Cowboy and entertainer

The first well-known African American cowboy, Pickett was a ranch hand who proved to be a superb horseman and steer handler. He invented the art of “bulldogging” and became a rodeo star in one of the world’s most popular and longest-running Wild West extravaganzas.

Areas of achievement: Film: acting; Sports: miscellaneous

Early Life

William Pickett was the first of thirteen children born to former slaves Thomas Jefferson Pickett and Mary Virginia Elizabeth Gilbert Pickett, who had African and Native American ancestry. He grew up near Austin, Texas, and attended school there, meanwhile working odd jobs on nearby ranches. He dropped out after fifth grade to work full time, and by his teens, he had become a capable ranch hand.

Pickett soon began to compete in rodeos. He was an especially talented bronco rider, but his main claim to fame was his uncanny skill in controlling unruly steers. A strong, wiry man of slight stature (5 feet, 7 inches tall and 145 pounds), he routinely wrestled full-grown longhorns weighing 1,000 pounds or more flat onto the ground, ready for branding. Pickett called his unique technique “bulldogging.”

In the late 1880’s, Pickett and four of his brothers started a successful wild horse-breaking enterprise. In 1890, he married Maggie Turner; they had two sons who did not live beyond infancy and seven daughters.

By the late 1890’s, Pickett was demonstrating his bulldogging prowess at county fairs and rodeos throughout Texas, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), and Kansas. An increasingly popular attraction, he hired a manager to handle bookings and promotion. Some venues required that Pickett stress his Native American rather than his African American heritage. He was given the nickname the “Dusky Demon” to capitalize on his almost supernatural ability to quickly fell half-ton steers. One of the spectators who saw his act was fellow cowboy and future radio and movie star and newspaper columnist Will Rogers. Around the turn of the century, Rogers introduced Pickett to the Miller brothers, owners of the Oklahoma-based 101 Ranch. The Millers offered Pickett permanent employment as a ranch hand, which he accepted. Meanwhile, Pickett and other 101 Ranch hands continued to compete at rodeos, usually taking all top prizes. Eventually, they were deemed professionals and banned from amateur competitions. To give their employees a venue in which they could exhibit their superior skills to the public, the Millers dreamed up a new venture: They would put on a Wild West show with Pickett a headliner.

Life’s Work

Civil War veteran Colonel George Washington Miller established the 101 Ranch—named for its distinctive brand—in the 1890’s, and after his 1903 death, his three sons ran the operation. The prosperous ranch, spread over more than 100,000 acres leased from the Cherokee and Ponca tribes, grew a variety of grains, vegetables, berries, and fruits and raised cattle, horses, bison, and other livestock. At its peak, the ranch employed hundreds of workers, including many African American cowboys like Pickett.

In 1905, the Miller brothers began staging Wild West shows like the Buffalo Bill Cody shows of the nineteenth century but with an emphasis on rodeo. The first, prominently featuring Pickett’s bulldogging act, drew sixty-five thousand spectators to the ranch. Encouraged by the turnout, the Millers developed a traveling show that toured April through September from 1906 to 1916. Pickett performed with the show throughout North and South America and in Europe; in the off-season, he performed regular duties at the ranch.

Part circus, part carnival, part rodeo, and all entertainment, the 101 Ranch Real Wild West Show offered something for everybody: sideshow attractions, exotic animals like elephants and ostriches, games, and concessions. Staged acts included Indian raids (starring real Oklahoma Indians), bandit attacks, and demonstrations of western arts. Audiences from New York City to London saw exhibitions of marksmanship, fancy roping, trick riding, bronco busting, and bulldogging. Besides Pickett, performers included Yakima Canutt (bronco rider and film stuntman), Will Rogers, Bee Ho Gray (trick roper), Art Accord (world bulldogging champ), Hoot Gibson (champion cowboy and silent movie star), Tex Ritter (actor and singer), Tom Mix (knife thrower, lariat spinner, and movie star), Princess Wenona (world’s greatest horseback rifle shot), Lucille Mulhall (“Queen of the Range”), Dixie Starr (trick and fancy rider), and Buck Jones (rodeo and movie star).

While touring Mexico in 1908, Pickett caused a sensation. To win a wager, he rode a fighting bull for more than five minutes, despite breaking several ribs (he suffered many injuries throughout his cowboy life). The spectators, thinking he was mocking a national tradition, pelted him with curses and garbage, and he had to be rescued by police. Pickett participated in the 1914 Anglo-American Exposition in London and performed before Great Britain’s King George V and Queen Mary. Soon after the show, World War I broke out and the British government commandeered all the 101 Ranch’s horses and vehicles for the war effort.

The 101 Ranch Wild West Show ceased touring in 1916, but the Miller brothers continued staging scaled-back exhibitions. Pickett lived and worked on the ranch, while his family resided in Ponca City or Oklahoma City. He performed with the show from time to time and demonstrated bulldogging at local rodeos, but mostly he worked at regular ranch chores. He retired from competition in the 1920’s. In 1925, the Miller brothers put together a new traveling show, hoping to recapture the glory of the previous decade. However, too much time had passed, and it was difficult to compete with the popularity of films and more spectacular shows such as the Ringling Bros. Circus. The last 101 Ranch show was held in 1931. By then, two of the Miller brothers had died. The ranch went bankrupt in 1932.

Pickett suffered personal tragedies as well: In 1929, Maggie, his wife of almost forty years, died after a short illness. His daughters all had grown and moved away, and he was alone again. In 1932, he was still working on the ranch. In late March of that year, he culled cattle for the surviving Miller brother, Zack, in preparation for a liquidation auction. Pickett was kicked in the head by a spooked horse and lay in a coma for ten days before succumbing to his injuries. He was buried on the ranch he had served for half of his adult life.

Significance

A star wherever he performed, Pickett was one of the first African Americans to appear in a heroic role on film: He was featured performing his specialty in the 1923 documentary The Bulldogger, and footage also was included in The Crimson Skull (1924). Pickett was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1971. In 1985, the only all-black rodeo was founded and named in his honor. In 1993, Pickett was to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp in the “Legends of the West” series. However, his brother Ben was mistakenly portrayed, and a handful of erroneous stamps were sold before sheets of stamps were recalled, the portrait was corrected, and the stamps were reissued. To avoid creating a philatelic rarity, the U.S. Postal Service reprinted 150,000 Ben Pickett stamps that were sold at auction.

Bibliography

Johnson, Cecil. Guts: Legendary Black Rodeo Cowboy Bill Pickett. New York: Summit, 1997. A straightforward biography of the African American rodeo star that also details the controversy arising from the mistaken commemorative postage stamp.

Stratton, W. K. Chasing the Rodeo: On Wild Rides and Big Dreams, Broken Hearts and Broken Bones, and One Man’s Search for the West. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005. A former rodeo rider examines the history and the contemporary state of the sport.

Wallis, Michael. The Real Wild West: The 101 Ranch and the Creation of the American West. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000. An overview of the Miller ranch and the family’s various enterprises, this resource also includes biographies of many of those who performed for the 101 Ranch, including Pickett.