Looking back

Long before feminism was popular, Ponca City, Oklahoma paid homage to the pioneer woman. These brave souls accompanied their men across the prairie for nothing more than the hope of a dream fulfilled, having no idea what really awaited them at the other end. Ponca City honored the pioneer woman by erecting an enormous statue of a woman and her child forging ahead into the unknown and a museum detailing the lives of the early Oklahoma settlers.

I know this, because when I was a child, we used to visit our grandparents in Ponca City and every trip included a walk first to the TG&Y, and then to the museum, where we'd gaze up at the Pioneer Woman in all her larger than life glory.

Imagine my surprise when I heard of a blog entitled "The Pioneer Woman". I took a quick look one day and discovered the chronicling of life on a cattle ranch by a woman who was raised on the golf course, lived the high life in southern California after college, came home for a visit, fell in love with a cowboy, and never left. This premise, in and of itself, holds a certain amount of interest. A little more digging and the real surprise revealed itself. This modern day pioneer woman lives on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma! While her blog doesn't reveal the exact location of the ranch, she does list a mailing address in Tulsa.

This discovery was of particular interest to me because my grandmother was also a "pioneer woman". I do not believe she was raised on a farm (though I'm not 100% sure of this), and she found herself on a cattle spread near, of all places, Tulsa, Oklahoma. An interest has been renewed to learn more about the ranch at Inola (am I right? Is this where it was?) and what life was like there. I'm hoping my dad will read this and consider telling the story of his life herding cattle perched on his painted pony.

The other interesting piece to this story is the fact that a google search of "the pioneer woman" brings up the blog first, before the museum. Not sure what that really means...