Earl Bascom was born June 19, 1906, on the 101 Ranch near Vernal, Utah and raised on a ranch in southern Alberta. Bascom lived during the age of the open range, cowboying across the continent. Standing 5’8” Bascom was wiry and strong. Though kind and soft spoken, seldom talking of himself he was always eager to talk about his art. He sculpted for over 50 years and produced several hundred works.
He worked on some of the largest horse and cattle ranches in the US and Canada. He broke and chased wild horses in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Canada. He worked on cattle drives through the Rockies and the Tetons.
In rodeo, Bascom competed in the bareback riding, saddle bronc, bull riding, steer riding, steer wrestling, and steer decorating, wild cow milking, and wild horseracing. He was a rodeo producer, stock contractor, hazer, rodeo clown, bull fighter, pickup man, and announcer. Bascom rodeoed from 1916 to 1940 and had memberships in the early-day Cowboys' Turtle Association, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the Canadian Pro Rodeo Association and the National Police Rodeo Association.
In his early life rodeo career, Earl Bascom lived by the philosophy - "If you want to be a champion bull rider, you have to ride the toughest bull."
The heart of Earl Bascom’s art career seems to stem from family bloodlines, particularly being cousin to western artist Charles M. Russell, (who’s art hangs in near every western family home you enter), and sculptor Frederic S. Remmington. Bascom credits art lessons from Russell on the family ranch in SW AB at age 9 as having influenced his future. It was during the lessons by Russell, who was working as a ranch hand on the Bascom place that, “The art bug bit me,” Bascom stated.
Bascom was the first cowboy elected a Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society of Arts of London, England, and the oldest cowboy ever elected a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Artists Association.
Though his art and rodeo career were phenomenal, what registers as most influential are his inventions that have greatly influenced modern rodeo and are still used today. For example, the high cut chaps made by every person with leather tools and a sewing machine, Bascom; the hornless bronc saddle, definitely a life-saving innovation, Bascom, (1922); and my favorite, the first one-handed bareback riggin’, Bascom, (1924). Looking at the ground Bascom’s inventions broke, it is easily argued that Bascom helped take rodeo from a ranch hand past time, to a real sport, with specified gear.
As boys on the family ranch in Welling, AB, Earl, and his brothers Raymond, Melvin, and Weldon, who were known as the “Bronc-Bustin’ Bascom Boys” also designed and built the first side-delivery rodeo chute, (1916). In 1919 Earl and his father John W. Bascom designed and built rodeo’s first reverse opening rodeo chute, which is most like those used today. Earl and Weldon also produced the first night rodeo held under electric lights in Columbia, MS, (1935).
Bascom’s art has been sold in 22 countries and can be found in 36 museums in the United States. Bascom has been inducted into 10 Halls of Fame including the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Earl Bascom passed away August 28, 1995 and is now being recognized posthumously by the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame for his contributions to the rodeo industry.
Bascom remains the only American cowboy artist ever inducted as a Fellow in the Royal Society of Arts in London, England (which has been in existence since 1764).
Bascom’s son John is trained to work in the Foundry that still produces Earl Bascom's work. No Earl Bascom piece leaves the foundry without the Bascom family's stamp of approval. |
Today at 10 am in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in celebration of the 60th year of the founding of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, it was officially announced to international news services that the late rodeo champion Earl W. Bascom (1906-1995), will be the first bull and bronc rider and the only cowboy artist ever inducted into that prestigious institution in its entire history.
