Pecos Bill Rides a Tornado
A Kansas Tall Tale
retold by
S.E. Schlosser
Now everyone in the West knows that Pecos Bill could ride anything. No bronco could throw him, no sir! Fact is, I only heard of Bill getting' throwed once in his whole career as a cowboy. Yep, it was that time he was up Kansas way and decided to ride him a tornado.
Now Bill wasn't gonna ride jest any tornado, no ma'am. He waited for the biggest gol-durned tornado you ever saw. It was turning the sky black and green, and roaring so loud it woke up the farmers away over in China. Well, Bill jest grabbed that there tornado, pushed it to the ground and jumped on its back. The tornado whipped and whirled and sidewinded and generally cussed its bad luck all the way down to Texas. Tied the rivers into knots, flattened all the forests so bad they had to rename one place the Staked Plains. But Bill jest rode along all calm-like, give it an occasional jab with his spurs.
Finally, that tornado decided it wasn't getting this cowboy off its back no-how. So it headed west to California and jest rained itself out. Made so much water it washed out the Grand Canyon. That tornado was down to practically nothing when Bill finally fell off. He hit the ground so hard it sank below sea level. Folks call the spot Death Valley.
Anyway, that's how rodeo got started. Though most cowboys stick to broncos these days.
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Comments
this story ruled
Posted by: nicolette bedwell | September 24, 2010 12:50 PM
COOL
Posted by: Anonymous | October 14, 2010 12:36 PM
i want to learn about tall tales
Posted by: jessica zeske | October 20, 2010 08:02 PM
This story was an amazing one.
Posted by: Ethan | October 24, 2010 09:11 PM
coooooooooooooooool 10 stars
Posted by: cheyenna | October 25, 2010 04:00 PM
cool
Posted by: corey | October 27, 2010 10:59 AM
good explanation of death valley
Posted by: carlos granados | October 28, 2010 10:04 AM
nice job
Posted by: Anonymous | November 3, 2010 12:13 PM
YEAH PECOS BILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YOURE MY HERO I LOVE YOU!! I WANNA BE JEST LIKE YOU ONE DAY
Posted by: mklfajdlfj | November 6, 2010 04:58 PM
I loved this its amazing! Who wud think to ride a tornado!!!
Posted by: Angel | November 7, 2010 02:08 PM
awsome
Posted by: Anonymous | November 9, 2010 02:52 PM
cool
Posted by: Anonymous | November 10, 2010 10:40 AM
coooooooooooooooool
Posted by: Anonymous | November 10, 2010 05:45 PM
This story is AWESOME!!!I would giveit 1000000000000000 stars :)
Posted by: Victoria | November 14, 2010 09:32 PM
i want to ride a tarnado!!!! this story rocked!!!!
Posted by: talon stormstalker | November 16, 2010 06:50 PM
Wow.....that was a good tall tale! i wish now to read more jest like it! Haha! :)
Posted by: Taylor | November 28, 2010 01:05 PM
i love it
Posted by: Anonymous | December 6, 2010 09:12 AM
awsome
Posted by: sasha | December 6, 2010 06:46 PM
this is such a great story!!!!!!!it is 1 of my favs!!!!!!
Posted by: kaite | December 7, 2010 04:53 PM
This is a great story
Posted by: Pom-Pom | December 8, 2010 11:50 AM
I love the story!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Cindy | December 8, 2010 02:10 PM
this story was realy cool
Posted by: cindy gutierrez | December 8, 2010 02:11 PM
I do not like bill at all but after i red this it changed my life.
Posted by: bil hater 101 | December 10, 2010 09:46 AM
LOL. very funny. you rock. That was a bad tornado!!!!!
Posted by: Cesar | December 15, 2010 10:25 AM
wow
Posted by: Anonymous | January 14, 2011 10:10 AM
awesome
Posted by: hi | January 18, 2011 08:31 PM
it is so cool
Posted by: Anonymous | January 21, 2011 12:10 PM
I think that's awesome 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 stars for the tornado and Bill.
Posted by: Garret | January 24, 2011 10:08 PM
this just did my language homework :)
Posted by: Anonymous | January 27, 2011 05:46 PM
This story is so great. I bet my cat would want to read it. Ha ha.:) ha ha ha so funny!
Posted by: leah | January 27, 2011 09:28 PM
wow!!!
Posted by: luca | February 6, 2011 07:26 PM
that is so cool i love tornados
Posted by: bob | February 8, 2011 01:47 PM
good story!
Posted by: hfghg | February 14, 2011 11:26 PM
cool
Posted by: Peter Miller | February 15, 2011 02:20 PM
ya. this is awesome. ya.
Posted by: collin | February 16, 2011 12:37 PM
man, pecos is one tough man. jest no guy like him! :)
Posted by: AJ | February 18, 2011 01:56 PM
this story rocked... this was deffinately the best story that i have heard that was a tall tale.... 10 stars guyssss!!!! :) :) loved it
Posted by: kayli | February 18, 2011 07:04 PM
cool
Posted by: Anonymous | February 23, 2011 09:39 AM
*clap clap clap*
Posted by: Anonymous | February 28, 2011 11:53 AM
i realy love it
Posted by: Anonymous | March 3, 2011 10:46 AM
I LOVED IT
Posted by: Anonymous | March 10, 2011 09:10 AM
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's crazy!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | March 10, 2011 08:48 PM
good story!!!!!!!!!! Too bad its a tall tale though...
Posted by: marissa | March 14, 2011 01:47 PM
WOW!!! awesome! love it so much even tho i had to do a paper on him once!!!
Posted by: Tallie | March 14, 2011 07:22 PM
awesome
Posted by: 2nd Grade | March 15, 2011 08:13 AM
GO! PECOS BILL YOU DA BEST
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2011 05:05 AM
epic
Posted by: Anonymous | March 22, 2011 02:26 PM
loved it lol
Posted by: rileydrake | March 22, 2011 04:02 PM
cool!who would think of that!
Posted by: Hannah D | March 22, 2011 07:56 PM
good
Posted by: Anonymous | March 24, 2011 07:27 PM
I liked the cowboy language nice story!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | March 31, 2011 04:11 PM
awsome
Posted by: kelsey | April 1, 2011 12:20 PM
awesome story !! :)
Posted by: kenna | April 13, 2011 12:44 PM
AWSOME
Posted by: ALEXA | April 20, 2011 09:25 AM
AAMAZING
Posted by: Anonymous | April 20, 2011 09:26 AM
I would rate it 9 stars out of 10
Posted by: Sam123 | May 9, 2011 11:35 PM
awesome cool story loved it lol
Posted by: yyhtrfd | May 12, 2011 02:11 PM
awsome story i love it
Posted by: jkl | May 12, 2011 05:12 PM
Dude nice job. Good for pesos.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 25, 2011 07:14 PM
I never thought of that I am going to ride a tornado
Posted by: Anonymous | June 4, 2011 09:39 AM
I didn't know we had COOL folk tale characters! I only knew about Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed
Posted by: Anonymous | July 17, 2011 01:41 PM
amazing
Posted by: liezel | July 25, 2011 05:02 AM
cool:)
Posted by: michelle | October 31, 2011 09:30 AM
cool:) story
Posted by: michelle | October 31, 2011 09:32 AM
this story was very strange but funny i loved it
Posted by: kailyn reid | October 2, 2012 04:37 PM