b'performers that included Tom Mix, Will Rogers, BuffaloGuy Weadick would continue to manage Pickett for Bill Cody - and Pickett. the next two years, introducing Pickett to Canadian audiences at his very own Calgary Stampede the month As aforementioned, the Miller Brothers were toying withafter the successful Oklahoma Days. In the following the idea of creating a Wild Western show that wouldyear, Weadick would bring Pickett to San Francisco in eclipse all other existing Wild West shows, coming out ofthe wake of the disastrous earthquake to participate at their spacious 101 Ranch and constantly touring. Havinga rodeo event where Pickett\'s folksy manner and his heard of Pickett\'s prowess in the arena, they eagerlybulldogging prowess in the arena amazed and brought accepted Guy Weadick\'s invitation to view Pickett incomfort to many a shattered soul in the days following performance at the 1905 Fort Worth Fat Stock Show.the natural disaster that had devastated their lives. It After watching with amazement Pickett bulldoggingwas an event that left an indelible mark on his life, often two steers during the rodeo, Miller Brother Zack eagerlytalking about it to family and friends for the rest of his approached Weadick and Pickett with an offer for Pickettlife (Hanes, pp. 62-63).to perform at the Oklahoma Days Gala at the 101 Ranch, to be held on June 11, 1905 - with the famed ApacheAs successful and savvy Guy Weadick was, his Calgary Chieftain Geronimo, then under close captivity at nearbyStampede taking off to rodeo superstardom in the years Fort Sill, to be, as the event\'s main attraction, allowedThe Miller Brothers, seeing that Tomfollowing its Grand Event in 1912, he realized that his to come out for the day under close supervision by theMix was no ordinary cowpoke, made himfriends the Millers could open up many more doors for Millers, to "kill his last buffalo." their arena director for their embryonictheir mutual friend and employee, the "Dusky Demon" Wild West shows, and thus, he was in aand ace bulldogger Bill Pickett. Following subsequent Besides Geronimo and Pickett, Tom Mix and famedposition to watch Bill Pickett wow em.rodeo events in Texas and Mexico, culminating in the rodeo Cowgirl Lucille Mulhall, who with her fatherSubsequently, Mix would become a close1907 Jamestown (Virginia) Exhibition, (attended by had also taken a Wild West show on the road wereand lifelong friend of Bill Picketts. President Theodore Roosevelt himself, who may have the star attractions for the Oklahoma Days event atwitnessed Pickett at work), Weadick, with Pickett\'s the 101: "The first real hint of what was to follow foras a thousand-pound steer ambled into the exhibitionapproval, signed over the 5\'5, 145 pound "Negro the Millers occurred at the roundup held on June 11,grounds. Then Bill Pickett himself emerged from theCowboy" to the Millers. It is not recorded what the 1905 for the National Editorial Association. Those whoshadows astride the stallion that would soon become hisMillers did offer Pickett, but besides building him and attended remembered it as an epic occasion that broughtfavorite, Spradley. (Spradley, whom Pickett would ride forhis family a home on the ranch grounds, it must have together several prominent icons of the American Westmany a rodeo and show for the next two decades was abeen substantial enough for Pickett to amicably part - Geronimo, Tom Mix, Lucille Mulhall and Bill Pickettcolt who had been destined for the slaughterhouse due toways with his old friend Weadick, and embrace his new (at the time Will Rogers was approximately 1,500 milesa deep splinter cut in his chest that had gone untreated.ones - Joe, Zack, and George Jr. - the Millers, bringing away, starring in a Vaudeville event in New York CityPickett had taken a liking to him, and insisted on savinghis growing family to settle on the 101 with him.and thus was unable to attend the Miller Brothers gala).him. Pickett nursed him back to health and he would soon On that remarkable afternoon, each of those legendarybe Pickett\'s go-to-exhibition stallion). Pickett himself wasThus began a quarter-century-long relationship of figures who rode for the Millers and the Hundred anddressed in a fancy matador outfit with his mustache neatlyemployee and friend between Bill Pickett and the Miller One unknowingly nurtured the illusions and yearningstrimmed. Then Pickett: "coaxed the horse forward. InBrothers - a working relationship and close bond that of generations yet unborn" (Ibid.). an instant, they were at full gallop and he was sliding offwould live through triumph and tragedy, friendships Spradley onto the huge steer\'s back. He grabbed a flashingwith other famous Wild West Cowboy characters such It would be a glorious, sunny and clear day when thehorn in each hand, dug his boots into the earth, andas the aforementioned Mix, Will Rogers, and Buffalo 65,000 attendees, young and old who arrived by railroad,twisted the steer\'s neck until its head was turned upward.Bill Cody, who was a brief headliner and participant wagon, or on horseback on the grounds of the 101Pickett\'s teeth gnashed on the steer\'s lip. The cowboy liftedfor the Miller Brothers 1916 Wild West show; through for the spectacle that was, even then and despite thehis hands in the air and gave his body a twist. The steer fellexhilaration on the rodeo and Wild West show circuits, popularity of Buffalo Bill\'s Wild West show one of theon its side and lay perfectly quiet as Pickett rendered himthrough major Wild West shows in New York and last of its kind as the image of the Old West was evenhelpless. The crowd jumped to its feet as if one body. Theother major U.S. cities, and a near disastrous bullfight then fading from the lives and even the memories ofapplause was said to be deafening. in Mexico amidst some very hostile pre-revolutionary many Americans. At 2 p.m. that afternoon, the grandcrowds, followed just years later by the confiscation of parade, almost a mile wide, rode into the exhibitionThe three Miller brothers, watching from behind thethe Millers\' horses by the British Army at the outbreak of grounds, the three Miller Brothers in the lead, followedscenes, knew they had witnessed something special.the first World War. Pickett would continue bulldogging, by a score of Cowboys, cavalrymen guarded GeronimoDecades later, after bossing hundreds of championriding, and roping for more Miller Brothers Wild West and his entourage, and a multitude of marching bandsCowboys and Cowgirls, rodeo riders, and doggers,shows up to age 48and semi-retirement, at least from followed by yet another large group of Cowboys andZach Miller would still look folks straight in the eye andshows but still training horses and teaching skills to Cowgirls, with a wagon train bringing up the rear. tell them, that Bill Pickett was the greatest sweat-and- younger cowpokes at the 101 until the final tragedy dirt cowhand that had ever lived, bar-none. Not a soulbeckoned. But that\'s for another installment. The first event of the afternoon was the Geronimodisagreed" (Ibid., pp. 255-256)."Buffalo Hunt." It had been touted as being his lastPick up our November issue for Part 3.buffalo hunt when in reality it was most likely his first,Another spectator who watched with amazement was as the southwestern deserts had been inhospitable to thethe Miller Brothers\' arena director, a lanky Cowboy bison for hundreds of years even before Geronimo wasoriginally from Pennsylvania who claimed service in born. As it was, it had to take two attempts for the agedTeddy Roosevelt\'s Rough Riders in the recent Spanish-Apache chief to even down the marked bison, the secondAmerican War. However, Tom Mix not only had not attempt at point-blank range which finally dispatchedserved in the Rough Riders, he had deserted from the the doomed beast. Later that afternoon Geronimoregular Army in order to marry the first of his five would finally thrill the crowd when top hat adorned andwives. He was already working at the 101 when he was accompanied by three other tribesmen in "war dress" hemarried to his second wife. The brothers, seeing that he "drove" the Locomobile, i.e., Cadillac immortalized bywas no ordinary cowpoke and recognizing his potential, Michael Martin Murphey\'s song into the arena (Wallis,made him their arena director for their embryonic Wild pp. 250-251). West shows, and thus, he was in a position to watch Bill Pickett wow \'em. Subsequently, Mix would become a By then though, it was Bill Pickett\'s time to shine. Pickettclose friend of Bill Pickett\'s, a lifelong friendship that had been billed as the "Wonderful Negro Pickett," and asended only with Pickett\'s demise.his friend and manager Weadick picked up a megaphone and announced loud and clear - "Ladies and gentlemen,Geronimo may have killed his "last" buffalo, and while the next event will be Bill Pickett, the Dusky Demon fromit may be argued he was the major event of the star-Texas, who will leap from the back of a running horsestudded day, in reality, it would be the "Dusky Demon" onto a running steer and throw the steer with his bareBill Pickett who would steal the Oklahoma Days arena hands and teeth" (Ibid,p. 255) the sunburned and drowsyevents. His star had finally arrived.audience suddenly awoke out of their collective slumber ArizonaRealCountry.com October 2022 55'