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A legendary cowboy familiar to northeast Oklahoma is gone but not forgotten.

Tom Mix passed away 70 years ago on Monday. An icon of the Wild West, Mix was the star of many early Western movies between 1909 and 1935. Mix appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent pictures. He appeared with the Sells-Floto Circus in 1929-1931 at a reported weekly salary of $20,000 - the equivalent of $298,000 today.

In 1933, Ralston Purina obtained his permission to produce the radio series Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters, which except for one year during World War II, was on the air throughout most of the 1930s into the early 1950s, well after Mix's death. Mix never appeared on these broadcasts because his voice was damaged by a bullet to the throat. That and repeated broken noses resulted in his voice being unfit for radio.

Mix was born on Jan. 6th, 1880 in Mix Run, Pennsylvania. He died on Oct. 12th, 1940 in Florence, Arizona.

If you would like to learn more about Tom Mix, you can visit the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey located at 721 North Delaware. The museum is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday from March 1st to December 21st. The museum is only open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday during the months of January and February. They can be reached at 918.534.1555.

To learn more about Tom Mix and the Tom Mix Museum, click here.