Issue Date: July 11, 1996
City: Anaheim, CA
Quantity: 23,681,000
Printed By: Ashton-Potter (USA) Ltd
Printing Method: Lithographed
Perforations: 11.1 x 11
Color: Multicolored

 

Pecos Bill was the first and best cowboy that ever was. He was the smartest, bravest, and most courageous of the men who tamed the wild American West. 

 

As an infant, legendary Pecos Bill was lost near the Pecos River in Texas. Luckily, coyotes adopted him and raised him as their own. The first human Bill met was his brother who named him Pecos Bill and took him to live at Hell’s Gate Gulch Ranch. 

 

Pecos Bill adjusted quickly to human ways and soon lassoed himself a feisty horse he named “Lightening” or “Widow Maker,” depending on the story. The men asked Pecos Bill to run the ranch and teach them what he knew. Thus, cowboys learned to lasso and break a horse, how to cowpunch, rope cattle, ride herd, and hold a roundup. Though Pecos Bill had solutions for every problem, he always credited his coyote family for his abilities and knowledge.

 

As the years went by, cowboys around the fire embellished the feats and derring-do of Pecos Bill. So it is we have stories of him digging the Rio Grande, wrestling bears, taming mountain lions for fun, and riding cyclones bareback. 

 

Edward O’Reilly published “The Saga of Pecos Bill” in 1923. Many stories of America’s first cowboy followed.