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Where is Pawhuska? And why would you go there?
That’s a really valid question! Pawhuska is a small town located in Osage county in northern Oklahoma. Surrounded by amazing prairie grasslands, the town has a long and rich history dating back to its founding when the area was still Indian Territory. In the recent past, the town has struggled and I remember trail riding or driving through the area as a child, the buildings boarded up and moldering. Not somewhere most people dreamed of visiting.
That is until Ree Drummond became The Pioneer Woman, a food and rural lifestyle superstar. Now the town is a popular tourist destination…perfect for a girls’ day out! Earlier this year, my mother and I took a quick trip down to explore the area.
The Mercantile
After a beautiful drive through the flint hills, our first stop was at the Mercantile. Based on a general store concept, the Merc is part restaurant, part boutique, and part coffee shop. We stopped here for breakfast and were actually lucky enough to be seated right away. A short time later, though, there was a long line stretching half way down the block waiting to get in. The restaurant can fill up quickly on busy days, so you might want to plan to get there early.
The food was exceptional, as you’d expect, and I was pleasantly surprised that there was a variety of vegetarian options available. I had the pancakes, complete with three different compound butters and three different infused syrups, and my mother had the garden vegetable skillet.
After breakfast we explored the shop and stopped by the coffee house upstairs to watch the bakers laminate croissant dough and pick up our directions to the lodge.
The Lodge
On select days, the public is welcome to visit the lodge out on Drummond Ranch where Food Network films The Pioneer Woman TV show. It’s a fair distance out of town and accessible only by gravel roads, but it’s definitely worth the trip. You’ll need to check ahead to make sure the lodge is open for tours before your visit (you can find the schedule online here) and then get a printout of directions from the Mercantile staff before you head out. I admit, even with the directions, we missed the turnoff the first time and had to double back, but we made it there eventually. The views from the lodge are incredible! And it’s a lot of fun to poke around in the pantry or pretend you’re the star of your own cooking show. On the day we visited, one of the show’s iconic Basset Hounds was even hanging around basking in all the attention!
Downtown Shopping
A wide variety of boutique shops, flea markets, and art galleries have moved in to Pawhuska’s downtown area. It’s fabulous to see all these buildings occupied after standing empty for so long. After visiting the lodge, we spent some time walking around, stopping to look in all the stores and doing a little shopping.
Historic Buildings
We made a quick detour up to the historic buildings up the (steep!) hill from downtown including the old courthouse and the location where the Million Dollar Elm, the site of oil rights auctions in the 1900s, used to stand. (Oklahoma was rich oil country! Frank Phillips lived just down the road in Bartlesville, OK…and Sinclair called Independence, KS home.)
Lunch
Though still quite full from breakfast, we certainly wanted to check out one more restaurant before we left town. We ended up at P-Town Pizza. This cute restaurant is located on the second story with a nice balcony overlooking downtown. Since the weather was nice, we opted for outside and enjoyed people watching as much as our meal. There are a few vegetarian options on the menu. We opted to share a small Pizza-Ree-a which included fresh tomatoes, basil, balsamic, and goat cheese since we weren’t super hungry and it was one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. In fact, I went home and recreated the combination the next weekend…though it wasn’t quite as good!
A snack for the road
We couldn’t stop thinking about the treats we’d seen in the coffee shop earlier in the day. So before we hit the road to head back home, we decided to make one last stop….and grab treats for later on in the evening. I took home a huge strawberries and cream croissant that was dessert that night and breakfast the next morning as well!
Where to Stay
We opted to make this a day trip, but if you have a long drive, it might be better to stay a night in town before or after your visit. There are several different options for lodging. The Pioneer Woman has her own hotel next door to the Mercantile, The Pioneer Woman Boarding House, and there is also a new hotel open across the street, The Frontier. If you have a larger group, consider the same AirBnB that the Food Network film crew uses when they’re in town (or any of the other great AirBnBs in the area).
When to Visit
Anytime is a good time! However, the lodge is only open for visitors on certain days, so be sure to check the schedule ahead of time. Pawhuska also has a festival around the Fourth of July complete with a street party downtown.
Pawhuska in Literature and the Movies
Pawhuska has actually been host to quite a few production crews recently. In addition to Food Network’s The Pioneer Woman, the movie adaptation of Tracy Letts’s play, August: Osage County, was filmed here as well as To the Wonder, staring Ben Affleck, and an adaptation of Killers of the Flower Moon.
More Things To Do
If you’re looking for more ideas of how to spend a day, weekend, or more in Pawhuska, check out this blog post on Things to do in Pawhuska, OK.
