Earl Bascom

Earl Bascom and Bonanza cowboy actor Dan Blocker both descend from Nicolas Martiau, the French Huguenot settler of Jamestowne, Virginia of 1620 who engineered the defenses of Jamestowne which protected the residents from an Indian attack in 1622.

Earl Bascom and actor Franchot Tone both descend from Thomas Bascom who was one of the founders of Windsor, Connecticut and later constable of Northampton, Massachusetts in 1666.

First cowboy artist to be made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts of London, England (founded in 1754).

Earl Bascom, whose maternal great grandmother came to America from Germany in 1865, and whose Royal German ancestry goes back to Heinrick I, Emperor of Germany, was honored at the Earl W. Bascom Memorial Rodeo in Berlin during the German-American Folkfest of 2005.

Earl Bascom was born on June 19, 1906 in Vernal, Utah, USA as Earl Wesley Bascom.

Invented rodeo gear and equipment, including the modern bronc saddle in 1922 and the modern bareback rigging in 1924.

He and his brothers boarded and cared for a team of palomino horses that were used by Hoot Gibson in a race scene in The Calgary Stampede (1925).

Worked on a ranch in Montana in 1926 on Kicking Horse Creek near the Sweetgrass Hills that once was owned by famous cowboy artist Charlie Russell.

In the mid 1930s he worked on the B Bar H cattle ranch in Lawrence County, MS. It was at one time owned by Sen. Stephan A. Douglas, famous for his debates with US President Abraham Lincoln.

In 1955 he became the first rodeo producer to use brahma bulls in a rodeo, at Columbia, MS.

He was an actor, known for Take Willy with Ya (1989). He was married to E. Nadine Diffey.

Was the international honoree for the National Day of the Cowboy in 2014.

First rodeo champion to be inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, in 2015.

Earl Bascom was named in 2017 by the Toronto Star newspaper as one of 150 of Canada's greatest athletes, chosen from Canada's historical past to celebrate that nation's 150th birthday when a confederation of 13 North American provinces and territories merged into one nation in 1867.