Rex Allen Museum: Willcox's Cowboy Hero

Rex Allen was born on a ranch near Willcox, Arizona, in nineteen twenty, the son of a fiddle-playing cowboy, and he grew up to become the last of Hollywood's great singing cowboys. After years on the radio circuit, Allen signed with Republic Pictures and made nineteen westerns starting in nineteen fifty. His smooth baritone and genuine ranching background gave him a credibility that set him apart from the studio cowboys of the era.

He later became one of the most recognizable voices in American entertainment, narrating dozens of Disney nature films and television commercials. Willcox opened a museum in his honor in nineteen eighty-nine on the main street of the town where he grew up. The Rex Allen Arizona Cowboy Museum celebrates not only Allen but the broader tradition of the Arizona cowboy culture that shaped the Sulphur Springs Valley.