Pecos Bill, << PAY kuhs or PAY kohs, >> is a cowboy hero in American folklore and popular tradition. He was the legendary inventor of roping, branding, and other cowboy skills. He also invented the six-shooter and train robbery and taught broncos how to buck.
According to legend, Pecos Bill was born in eastern Texas during the 1830’s. He used a bowie knife as a teething ring and played with wild animals. During a trip west, Bill fell out of the family wagon near the Pecos River. He became lost and was raised by coyotes.
To win a bet, Pecos Bill once rode an Oklahoma cyclone without a saddle. The cyclone could not throw him and finally “rained out” from under him in Arizona. The rain fell so heavily that it created the Grand Canyon. Bill crashed in California, and the force of his fall created Death Valley. There are several versions of Bill’s death. In one, he laughed to death after a man from Boston asked him silly questions about the West.
The legend of Pecos Bill developed from a magazine article written in 1923 by Edward O’Reilly, an American journalist. O’Reilly patterned Bill after Paul Bunyan and other legendary frontier heroes.
