Weird Oklahoma History: Mister Ed is Buried in Tahlequah

I'm not exactly sure what the cutoff age is, but at a certain point in American history, everyone knew who Mister Ed was. I grew up with Boomer parents so I saw a ton of this show in reruns growing up, but my Zoomer nephews have no idea who Mister Ed is/was.

Even worse, when we say "He was a talking horse," their eyes just glaze over in confusion, laughing at how wild the suggestion is that a talking horse was once America's most popular television star.

From 1961 through 1966, Mister Ed filmed and aired 143 episodes on two different networks.

While often credited as "himself," Mister Ed's real name was Bamboo Harvester. A palomino-Arabian saddlebred horse that ended up on small screens across the country as a last resort.

Hollywood actually wanted to capitalize on the popularity of another character that was big in the 1950s called Francis the Talking Mule, but they weren't able to license the rights. In fact, the studio basically wanted nothing to do with Mister Ed until comedy legend George Burns stepped up and said "I'll finance the whole thing."

It was a hit and everyone later forgot all about Francis the Talking Mule.

Like everything in Hollywood does, Mister Ed eventually came to a close in 1966 and Bamboo Harvester was put to pasture suffering all sorts of common equine issues for his age.

He died in 1970 on the Snodgras Farm outside of Tahlequah and was buried there in an unmarked grave.

So how do we know he was buried there?

That's just the tale. Fans of the show did eventually crowdfund a grave marker for America's favorite horse in 1990. It has been a roadside attraction ever since.