A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Café

By Dave Shute

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

PECOS BILL AT THE MAGIC KINGDOM

By Jim Korkis

The Mile Long Bar was originally in Frontierland from October 1971 to January 1998 at the exit of the Country Bear Jamboree.

The eatery was named for its use of mirrors that created the illusion of visually extending the actual length of the bar.  Next door, the Pecos Bill Cafe had been part of the Magic Kingdom landscape since 1971. A much-needed expansion effort in 1998 incorporated the adjacent Mile Long Bar into the café and added indoor seating.

(c) Disney

The location was re-dubbed the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Café, with a framed picture of Disney’s animated cartoon version of Pecos Bill just above the fireplace. The newly designed quick serve area was meant to invoke restaurants like Planet Hollywood (which opened at Disney in 1994) and Hard Rock Café (Hard Rock Live opened in 1999 in Orlando next to the Hard Rock Café) where authentic celebrity memorabilia decorated the walls.

To help explain the concept, the Imagineers posted the back story on a piece of faux stretched rawhide near the entrance:

Considered by many as the meanest, toughest, roughest cowboy of them all, Pecos Bill has been credited for inventing all things western, from rodeos to cowboy dancing, to spurs, hats and lassos. He can draw faster, shoot straighter and ride a horse harder than any man alive. Unfortunately, we don’t know when and where he was born, just that he was raised by coyotes and that his name comes from the river in Texas.

Over the years, Pecos Bill along with his trusty horse, Widowmaker, have made quite a name for themselves forging new trails and taming others. Legend tells us several tall tales, like the time Pecos Bill jumped on a powerful twister and road it like a bucking bronco. Then there was the time when Pecos Bill dug out a path to create the Rio Grande river during a severe drought that hit his beloved Texas. And then there was the day Pecos Bill was so bored he took his handy six-shooter and shot out all of the stars in the sky except for one. That’s why they call Texas the “Lone Star State.”

In 1878, with the encouragement of his friends, Pecos Bill decided to open his own watering hole, a restaurant whose motto very much reflects its one-of-a-kind owner. “The tastiest eats and treats this side of the Rio Grande.”

Pecos Bill called it the Tall Tale Inn and Café and it quickly became a popular hangout for some of his legendary friends. As time went by, it became a tradition when each friend paid a visit they would leave something behind for Pecos Bill to remember them by. As you can see from the articles and artifacts that don the walls, many of which carry inscriptions, Pecos Bill had some mighty impressive friends. Seems that every trail eventually led to the Tall Tale Inn and Café.

Scattered throughout the location are Buffalo Bill’s boots, a giant axe belonging to Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed’s tin pot-hat, Kit Carson’s scouting tools, Davy Crockett’s satchel and powder horn, John Henry’s hammer, Jim Bowie’s famous knife and Slue Foot Sue’s spurs and gloves.

Davy Crockett’s fictional companion from the Disney television series, Georgie Russel left behind a hand-written version of Davy’s encounter with Big Foot Mason.

One item that sometimes puzzles guest is a display of a black mask and a silver bullet but no identification plaque leading people to ask the famous question, “Who was that Masked Man?” Obviously, the answer is the Lone Ranger and at the time of its installation, Disney did not have the rights to the character.

There was a Disney connection with the character. Jack Wrather who owned the Disneyland Hotel also owned the rights to the Lone Ranger and in the early years of Disneyland allowed actor Clayton Moore garbed in his full television costume to visit Disneyland for publicity purposes including riding the Mark Twain steamboat with children.

The western end of the building shifts into the more realistic Spanish-influenced settings of the Southwestern United States to create a smooth transition into Adventureland’s Caribbean Plaza, with its adobe walls and Spanish tile roofs.

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Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for even more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, and The Vault of Walt: Volume 4, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.

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