This was one of the key stops on our trip – The Pioneer Woman!We stayed in this renovated office building, now the Frontier Hotel.Here is the Pioneer Woman Boarding House. We could not get a room here, even months ago – it was all booked.The Pioneer Woman’s Mercantile.Drummond Ranch truck photo-op.The Merc. The expansion of the Pioneer Woman franchise on the Food TV network has enabled Ree Drummond to fully embrace the American Dream. The little town of Pawhuska has been revived because of all the benefits of the Pioneer Woman. The Pioneer Woman employs people in the Merc, the Boarding House, the PW Collection, the Event Center, P-Town Pizza, and Charlie’s Sweet Shop, all in Pawhuska. The increased tourism has also added other businesses to the town, like the Frontier Hotel we stayed in.Breakfast at the Merc.For her: Just a Waffle + sausage For him: Edna Mae’s BreakfastThe storeThe bakeryGiant Kitchen Aid mixerThe Drummond Ranch. The Drummond family is the 23rd largest private landowner in the US, with 433,000 acres in Oklahoma and Kansas.The road to the lodge.CowboyThe lodge.Just like on TV!View of the ranch from the balcony.
The best restaurant in Bartlesville.Old, but very good.Their famous “Hot Hamburger Gravy Over All”. Hamburger, covered in French fries, covered in gravy. Mmm mmm good!
This is a replica of Nellie Johnstone Number 1, the first commercial oil well in Oklahoma, starting in 1897. It was 1,320 feet deep, and between 1903 and 1947 it produced an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil, which were ultimately transformed into 4 million gallons of petroleum products.Bull Wheel – drilling rope or line was wrapped around this huge spool, which was wound and unwound as tools were lowered and raised in the well bore.Looking up into the derrick.Band Wheel – 2,600 pound wheel of laminated wood transformed the rotating motion of the drive belt into the up-and-down motion necessary to drill the well.Steam Engine – the power source for drilling was provided by this one-cylinder steam engine, which received steam through a pipe from the boiler. It typically operated at 60 to 120 revolutions per minute.Boiler – steam from this boiler operated the derrick. Wood from nearby trees provided the fuel for the boiler’s fire, and the nearby Caney River furnished the necessary water.
