Real Wild West: The 101 Ranch And The Creation Of The American West

by Michael Wallis

Although not as renowned as Buffalo Bill Cody, Joseph Miller and his brothers were in many ways as impressive as impresarios. Their Wild West shows, which competed with Cody's show and the Ringling Brothers' circuses, featured talent like Will Rogers and Tom Mix and significantly influenced American mass entertainment. In The Real Wild West, Michael Wallis makes a case that the Millers didn't just invent the romantic West but lived it as well.

Like Cody before them, the Millers took their cues from the frontier, largely because they played a significant part in its conquest. The family's rambunctious Kentuckian patriarch, George Washington Miller, abandoned the bluegrass of his home state to raise cattle on the greener pastures of the plains. His sons followed suit, but in 1905, a rodeo at the 101, their 100,000-acre-plus Oklahoma ranch, for the National Editorial Association led to a new career in popular entertainment. Within a decade, film producer Thomas Ince had set up shop nearby, utilizing talent from the 101 for his westerns. (It was Ince's mysterious death, combined with revelations of financial chicanery, that ultimately destroyed the enterprise in the 1920s.)

Wallis doesn't sugarcoat accusations of murder and illegal financial maneuverings on the part of the Millers, instead making interesting parallels between their ruthlessness and business acumen and the romantic vision of the West they presented to early-20th-century audiences. His account is also notable for its numerous biographies of 101 performers--people like Princess Wenona, the Native American rival to Annie Oakley, and Bill Pickett, an African American cowhand who founded most of the events on the professional rodeo circuit--and conveys the enthusiasm many must have felt during the Wild West shows' heyday. --John M. Anderson

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

652 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1999

About the author

Michael Wallis is the bestselling author of Route 66, Billy the Kid, Pretty Boy, and David Crockett. He hosts the PBS series American Roads. He voiced The Sheriff in the animated Pixar feature Cars. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Reviews

[Diane Helentjaris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and am thankful Michael Wallis took the time to research and write it. It is a long book. Wallis includes many bit characters and details which is nice if you want to know about them which I did. It started out slowl as the author laid the foundation. The sheer breadth of the family’s influence, actions, and doings is amazing and what is more surprising is that they are little discussed today. A must-read for students of the West and the early history of American film.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got bogged down in minutia sometimes, but the broad coverage of the origins of our fascination with the American West and the Cowboy image was interesting. Little is known, in general, of this Oklahoma ranch that was part of the great cattle drives, the wild west shows that toured the world, and the making of early Western movies. Interesting.

[Olivier Lepetit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very long book, on a very specific, arcane subject. Nonetheless, good insight on this huge ranch which defined the 'cowboy' way of life and made it popular through road shows and the first western movies.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into a rugged lifestyle and even more rugged people!

Michael Wallis, The Real Wild West: The 101 Ranch and the Creation of the American West (New York: St Martin's Press, 1999), 452.

“Trail's End.”
“Everything has an end.” - Masai saying