The Pioneer Woman, The Spirit Is Still Alive and Well
Heading west holding the hand of her young son, the Pioneer Woman embodies the building of the western United States. She stands seventeen feet tall on a pyramidal stone base, the entire sculpture rises forty feet proud and strong. The sculpture commissioned by E. W. Marland is a tribute to all pioneer women, a culture Marland saw as disappearing and he wanted to honor.Ponca City in northeastern Oklahoma may seem an unlikely place for the bronze sculpture of the Pioneer Woman. The city created in 1893 has been rooted in oil since the early 1900s when E. W. Marland arrived from Pennsylvania.
In the late 1920s, Marland wanted to commission a statue to a dying culture. Many wanted him to honor the Native Americans yet he said their culture was not dying and would remain. He saw the pioneer woman as a dying culture since the west was “won” and so much modernization was taking place in society. The pioneer women were truly a force in the building of the west and Marland believed these women should be honored.
To us, the most interesting aspect of The Pioneer Woman is not the sculpture itself but how the artist was chosen. Marland wanted international participation so he organized a competition to pick the appropriate design. Twelve works were selected and sent on tour where all who viewed voted on their favorite design to represent The Pioneer Woman and her spirit. The designs toured galleries in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Dallas, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City and Ponca City. In all 750,000 votes were cast and the winner was “Confident” by Bryant Baker a British born New York sculptor.
We don’t think the culture of the Pioneer Woman has died, it has just evolved. Many women today embody the spirit of the women moving west to an unknown land.
We know of several such women with pioneering spirits, among them Stacy Gutheinz of Freeze Brand Ranch who trains wild mustangs, two at a time in just a few short weeks and then begins anew with two new wild horses. Allison Hawkins Guidroz of Fullness Organic Farm, who farms with her husband, Grant, in Baton Rouge, LA supplying great farm produce to local chefs and the Baton Rouge Farmers Market. And, our niece, Katherine Erley who is raising two children and supplying their table with eggs, chickens, vegetables, and fresh honey as a beekeeper.
It is women like these who keep the pioneering spirit alive, even today in the 21st century.
