Rancher Earl Bascom became an actor and the Father of Modern Rodeo

On the family ranch outside of Vernal, Utah, Earl Bascom was born in a log cabin. His father rode in posses that hunted people like Butch Cassidy and his gang, among others. Earl spent part of his childhood living in both the United States and Canada as a rancher and cowhand. When a Canadian Mountie found him working as a cowhand at the age of 13, the authorities ordered him to go back to school.

While still in his teens, Bascom broke and shoed horses, rode on cattle drives across the majority of the American and Canadian West, and worked on ranches. He began performing on the American and Canadian rodeo circuit in 1916. He eventually finished school, earning his degree from Brigham Young University in 1940. Later, he achieved fame on a global scale as a painter and sculptor, specializing in the Western themes he was so familiar with.

Bascom contributed to the growth of rodeo as a contemporary sport by writing and publishing works of fiction and nonfiction that depicted the life of a rancher and cowboy. In the future, the cowboy who rode broncs and roped steers was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London. The Father of Modern Rodeo is how most people refer to him.

Born: Earl Wesley Bascom, June 19, 1906 Vernal, Utah, United States
Died: August 28, 1995 (aged 89)Victorville, California, United States