Pecos Bill (folklore)
Pecos Bill is a legendary figure in American folklore, celebrated as a quintessential cowboy who embodies the spirit of westward expansion. Born as the eighteenth child in a Texas family, he was raised by coyotes and became known for his extraordinary feats, such as lassoing a tornado and wrestling a bear. His adventures were popularized in the early 20th century by Edward O'Reilly, whose tales, while often exaggerated, contributed significantly to the folklore genre. Pecos Bill's character is part of a trilogy of larger-than-life heroes that includes John Henry and Paul Bunyan, each representing different aspects of American culture and values.
Pecos Bill's stories reflect themes of rugged independence, responsibility, and a romanticized view of the Wild West, while also revealing a softer side through his love for Slue-Foot Sue. Although these tales celebrate American ideals, they have also been critiqued for reinforcing stereotypes, particularly regarding Mexicans. The legacy of Pecos Bill continues to influence American culture, seen in various forms of media and even theme park attractions, suggesting a lasting impact on how Americans perceive their historical and cultural identity.
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Pecos Bill (folklore)
Pecos Bill was one of the iconic figures in American folklore, a big man, big enough to tame the New World, a country with broad shoulders. Pioneers pushed South and North on their westward quest to reach the rumored great Pacific Sea. Chroniclers sent back to the growing colonies and settlements stories and art depicting the land’s rich beauty with a plethora of natural resources such as gold; rich soil for planting food and cotton; wide swaths of plains for raising cattle, sheep, and hunting buffalo; and forests for hunting small and big game. Reports from the Lewis and Clark "Corps of Discovery Expedition" inspired stories that motivated the adventurous to follow the advice generally attributed to author Horace Greeley in the mid-1800s to "Go West, young man." Folklore needs heroes larger than life to be the memory keepers, and Edward O’Reilly’s 1917 tales in the Century Magazine about cowboy Pecos Bill captivated the nation.
Brief History
Pecos Bill is the latest in a trilogy of larger than life folk heroes. John Henry was the "steel-driving man" making way for the railroads by clearing rock-mountains, and Paul Bunyan’s exploits were super-size, superhuman strength. Accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox, living up north in lumber country, Bunyan felled trees too large for others. All three characters are grandiose legends from campfire stories giving gravitas to America’s westward expansion.
O’Reilly hewed the image of the cowboy and the southwestward expansion in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. If O’Reilly did not create a genre of fake lore, he massively contributed to it. His tales were debunked, but his aggrandizements of Pecos Bill were so influential other writers spread the adventures embedding Pecos Bill in the American historical record.
Pecos Bill was born the eighteenth child to a Texas family. The babe fell out of a covered wagon and was never missed. Pecos Bill was raised by coyotes, grew riding a horse named Widow Maker (Lightning), because no other man was mighty enough to ride him. He invented the branding iron. He had the audacity to use Shake the rattlesnake as a lasso and a smaller snake as a whip. Widow Maker transformed into a mountain lion. Pecos Bill wrestled a bear for days until the bear collapsed from exhaustion. He saved the day by riding into the ground the biggest most fearsome tornado (cyclone to others), so gigantic men on the moon, in Africa, and whales in the Pacific were able to see it. There was a soft side, a vulnerable underbelly to Pecos Bill the authors reveal to humanize him and make Pecos Bill relatable. He calmed cattle herds with soothing original cowboy melodies, and he fell in love with Slue-Foot Sue.
Like any young man wanting to impress a love interest, Pecos Bill shoots the stars from the sky, leaving only a lone star (the Lone Star cowboy). Their love story ends with imaginative gusto, but the captivating ladies’ man is rumored to marry many more times. Pecos Bill laughs himself to death when he meets a swaggering, costume-dressed city slicker in lizard skin cowboy boots, blue jeans, and a spanking new 10-gallon hat.
Impact
Pecos Bill campfire stories are memorialized in articles, songs, books, and movies originating from an oral tradition. Oral tradition is the cultural DNA of a people, nation, religion, and society transmitted across generations. The characteristics and attributes make them recognizable types. The character of Pecos Bill carries across generations becoming what defines an American and the romanticism of the Wild West: ruddy independence, oversized sense of self-worth, personal responsibility for lifting oneself up by his or her bootstraps, freedom to choose, and living with the consequences, braggarts who perform, taming giants, responsible for one’s own self-defense. The name Pecos Bill enhances the multicultural of American. Concomitant with the hard side, Pecos Bill and Americans have a soft heart that Pecos Bill demonstrates singing to cattle and loving Sue. These images of how Americans view themselves permeated the American culture and notion of the American persona for more than one hundred fifty years.
Americans thinking of themselves in these terms have become among the most gun-toting citizenry in the world. America’s isolationist national governments kept it from entering both World Wars early; only an existential threat forced America to confront the Soviet Union in a Cold War; and subsequent police actions and wars were arguably not fought to conquer enemies.
Pecos Bill contributes in two other ways as well. America has a soft side: it is a charitable country willing to come to a friend’s aid, and it provides the needy with reasonable social safety.
Social anthropologist Pablo Loaeza suggests in "Tall Tale, Short Memory: Pecos Bill and the Mexican Other" that Pecos Bill and other cowboy heroes add to racism lasting through the generations by degrading Mexicans. The "prejudice stereotyping, to identity affirmation as well as labor exploitation, which [the tales of these characters] serve to justify," continues.
In an entertaining award-winning video about Pecos Bill, Robin Williams assures children and nostalgic souls that, without Pecos Bill, there never would have been a Wild West, just a plain old mundane West. The legend and imagery inspired by Pecos Bill and Sluefoot Sue, riding Widow Maker and jumping from cloud to cloud, still exists in the American Southwest. Look no further than the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Café in Disneyland, where cooks and servers will rustle up regional cowboy-style foods that the public is invited to imagine must have been Pecos Bill’s favorites. "If you’re ever down Texas way and ask around about the rootin’-est, tootin’-est cowboy who ever rode the range, you’ll get one, and only one, answer: Pecos Bill" (Blane 15).
Bibliography
Blane, Antonio. Casey Jones, Pecos Bill and Sluefoot Sue. Pelham, NY: Benchmark Education Company, 2011. Print.
Bowman, James C., and Bannon, Laura. Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Time. New York: NYR of Books Children’s Collection (republished), 2007. Print.
Fishwick, Marshall W. "The Cowboy: America’s Contribution to the World’s Mythology." Western Folklore 11. 2 (1952): 77-92. Web. 22 Nov. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1496835?seq=1#page‗scan‗tab‗contents>.
Gleeson, Brian. Pecos Bill. Rabbit Ears Screening Room. Ruckus Media Group. Narrated by Robin Williams. Web. 22 Nov. 2015. <https://vimeo.com/127715788>.
The Handbook of Texas. Texas State Historical Association. 1999. Print.
Hanson, Eric. "Oral Traditions." Indigenous Founds.arts.ubc.ca. The University of British Columbia, Copyright 2009. Web. 22 Nov. 2015. <http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/culture/oral-traditions.html>.
Kellogg, Stephen, and Laura Robb. Pecos Bill. New York: Rayo Publishing, 1995. Print.
Loaeza, Pablo G. "Tall Tale, Short Memory: Pecos Bill and the Mexican Other." The Journal of Popular Culture 47.2 (2014): 226-46. Print.
Schlosser, S.E. "Pecos Bill." American Folklore. AmericanFolklore.net, 14 Dec. 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. <http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/pecos-bill/>.
Weiser, Kathy. "Pecos Bill-A Legend of Frontier Spirit." American Lore and Legend. Copyright 2003. Web. <http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-pecosbill.html>.