12/25/2013: A cowboy’s cowboy, Jack Chase died on December 26, 2001. He was a four-time state champion steer wrestler during the 1960s and traveled the rodeo circuit as often as his work allowed from the late 1940s until 1980, when he retired from active competition. Jack was a top rodeo cowboy and a person who did a great deal during his lifetime to promote and keep the cowboy way of life and our western heritage alive.
12/27/2013: North Dakota rodeo star John “Buzz” Fredericks Jr. died on this date in 2006. He was a lifetime rancher and a well-known rodeo cowboy, winning titles in bareback, saddle bronc and steer wrestling.
12/2/2013: Pete Pelissier, known as the “Buffalo Bill of the Missouri Slopes,” created a Wild West Show in the 1890s that performed around North Dakota. The show also traveled along the route of the Northern Pacific Railroad, appearing as far east as Boston, Massachusetts.
12/4/2013: Melvin Griffin was born into ranching life at Stacey, Montana on this date in 1908 to Rose Anna and Lewis Griffin. Melvin only attended school through the eighth grade, but he started trailing cattle with his dad when he was only ten, and after trailing cattle into North Dakota in June 1926, 18-year-old Melvin saw there was ranch work available. He began breaking horses at Alex LaSotta’s Triple V Ranch, where he became known for having a good eye for telling if a horse was sound or not.
7/3/2013: On this date in 1908, Joseph and Estelle Cordner were busy celebrating the birth of their daughter Marie just two days before. Born on the family farm near Moffit, Marie later moved to Bismarck, graduating from Bismarck High School in 1926. In 1938, she married James Tyler in Poplar, Montana.