Pecos Bill
- Date of account
- Print tradition established in the early 20th century; claimed oral antecedents disputed
- Location
- Texas and the American Southwest, United States
- Source
- model_recalled_reference
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
Pecos Bill is a larger-than-life cowboy and frontier trickster whose exploits appeared in early twentieth-century American popular print, especially in publications associated with Edward O’Reilly. Stories portray impossible feats involving storms, animals, weapons, and the landscape of the Southwest. The figure offers a comparison with Paul Bunyan and other regional culture heroes, particularly regarding commercial authorship and claims of oral antiquity. Scholars have questioned whether the reported pre-publication oral tradition was as extensive as later accounts suggest. The narratives are literary folklore, not biographies.
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