Meet the ‘Michael Phelps of rodeo’ and ‘a solid Saint in the kingdom’

(ldsliving.com 7-22-23)

The “Father of Modern Rodeo” was truly a renaissance man. He is also known as the “Cowboy of Cowboy Artists,” “Lord Bascom—King of the Canadian Cowboys,” and “rodeo’s first collegiate cowboy.” And even those titles don’t quite capture all of Earl Bascom’s achievements. Throughout his storied career, he was a professional bronc buster, bull rider, trail driver, blacksmith, rodeo champion, cattle rancher, WWII shipfitter, inventor, painter, sculptor, high school teacher, and Hollywood actor.

And amid all these unique and impressive pursuits, his former stake president said, “He was one of those people that I would consider a solid Saint in the kingdom.”

Earl passed away in 1995 at the age of 89, but he left a legacy of faith, hard work, and innovation for his family and rodeo fans alike. So let’s dive into the life, career, and faith of Earl W. Bascom.

Early Life and Lineage

According to the Vernal Express, Earl Bascom was born in a log cabin on the 101 Ranch near Vernal, Utah, on June 19, 1906. But even before he was born, Earl’s family heritage paved the way for his career path in frontier, ranching, and rodeo life. Earl was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, and both of his grandfathers, Joel A. Bascom and C. F. B. Lybbert, were Latter-day Saint pioneers, frontier lawmen, and ranchers. Earl’s father, Deputy Sheriff John W. Bascom, chased members of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch Gang and outlaw Harry “Mad Dog” Tracy in the late 1880’s. Earl’s great-uncle Ephraim Roberts was a pony express rider, riding from Utah to Southern California and back, and another great-uncle, William Lance, was a soldier in the Mormon Battalion.

When Earl was six years old, his mother Rachel died of breast cancer in 1912, according to Cowboy Country Magazine. Shortly after, the family moved to Canada, where Earl’s father worked as foreman on the ranch of Ray Knight, the millionaire rancher namesake of the city of Raymond, Alberta, Canada. His father’s fortuitous employer was considered the “Father of Canadian Rodeo” after he promoted and produced Canada’s first rodeo, the Raymond Stampede, in 1902. The Raymond Stampede of 1918 is where Earl entered his first professional rodeo at the age of 12.

Rodeo Career

For 23 seasons, between the years of 1916 and 1940, Earl rodeoed professionally and was frequently named rodeo champion. He saw his professional rodeo heyday between 1930 and 1940, and according to The Sun, Earl took second place in the North American Championship and placed third in the rodeo Championship of the World. Throughout his career, Earl took part in every aspect of rodeo competition—“including bareback, saddle bronc, bull riding, steer riding, steer wrestling, steer decorating, wild cow milking, and wild horse racing. He also worked as a rodeo producer, stock contractor, rodeo announcer, pickup man, hazer, rodeo clown, and bullfighter.”

Inventions

According to Cowboy Country Magazine, in 1916, brothers Raymond, Melvin, and Earl Bascom designed and constructed the first known side-delivery rodeo chute. In 1919, the Bascom brothers redesigned their side-delivery chute, requiring only one man to work the gate and eliminating the hazard of riders’ banged-up knees. This ingenious Bascom design is now the standard for rodeo chutes and arenas.

On his own, Earl also invented two important pieces of rodeo equipment: the first hornless bronc saddle back (“mulee”) in 1922 and the first one-handed bareback rigging in 1924. Today, both pieces of equipment are standard issue at all professional rodeos throughout the world.

Wikipedia also lists Earl as the inventor of the first high-cut rodeo chaps in 1926 and the first rodeo exerciser in 1928. He and his brother Weldon produced the first rodeos in the state of Mississippi and the first night rodeos held outdoors under electric lights. Earl’s designs also led to the first first permanent rodeo arena constructed in the state of Mississippi.

Film

In 1917, Earl was in his first Hollywood movie, The Silent Man, starring William S. Hart. Years later, Earl acted as one of the outlaws in the 1954 Hollywood western, The Lawless Rider. Earl’s brother Weldon played the sheriff in the film, and Weldon’s wife, Texas Rose Bascom, was the leading actress.

After retiring in California, Earl and his son-in-law Mel Marion worked with Roy Rogers, being filmed for TV commercials for the Roy Rogers Restaurant chain, according to Wikipedia. Earl and his son John were also featured in the television documentary Take Willy With Ya, a tribute to the life of rodeo champion Turk Greenough.

Art and Teaching

Earl’s formal education as a young student was meager—he was educated in one-room schoolhouses and only completed one full school year, according to Wikipedia. Even without a high school diploma, he was accepted as a student at Brigham Young University in in the fall of 1933. He was a 27-year-old freshman who, in his words, “felt like a wild horse in a pen,” but he had developed a love for art as a child and took every art course BYU offered.

The Provo Evening Herald reported that during his freshman year, Earl won the Studio Guild Award for the best student art work of the year, and he won the award again in 1936. He was a beloved member of the BYU Art Club as a popular entertainer with his cartoon drawings, and Earl graduated from BYU with a degree in Fine Art in 1940, where his fellow art students voted him “most likely to succeed” as an artist.

Years after graduating and moving with his wife, Nadine, to California, the couple brought their family back to Utah, where Nadine earned her degree at BYU and Earl qualified for a lifetime teaching certificate. Both Earl and Nadine became teachers after settling back in Victorville, California, in 1966—Nadine teaching elementary school and Earl teaching high school art classes. According to MormonWiki, Earl took sculpture and bronze casting at UC Riverside, launching him into another field of art.

In his later years, Bascom became internationally known as a cowboy artist and sculptor, with his art being exhibited across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. In 1994, Bascom was commissioned by the Texas Longhorn Quincentennial Celebration Committee to produce his sculpture of what was considered “the most authentic example of a classical Texas longhorn steer.”

Earl is quoted to have said of his own art, “I’ve tried to portray the West as I knew it —rough and rugged and tough as a boot but with a good heart and honest as the day is long.”

Awards and Honors

Earl Bascom received countless honors during his lifetime, including induction into four major Halls of Fame—the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Rodeo Hall of Fame, and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Additionally, he has been inducted into state rodeo halls of fame in Utah, Mississippi, and Idaho, and in 2014 he was named the National Day of the Cowboy honoree. The U.S. House of Representatives also honored Earl Bascom as an “American Hero” in 1985.

Tributes

Earl Bascom passed away on August 28, 1995 at the age of 89, on his ranch in Victorville, California. After his passing, Earl was given a tribute honor in the Congressional Record by United States Congressman Jerry Lewis: [Earl Bascom was a] “cowboy hero and a true inspiration … (who) lived one of the most interesting lives ever known in modern cowboy history.”

Cowboy celebrity Roy Rogers, who worked with Earl on TV commercials and was known to be a collector of Bascom’s art, once said, “Earl Bascom is a walking book of history. His knowledge of the Old West was acquired the old fashioned way—he was born and raised in it.”

Ken Knopp, historian of the Mississippi Rodeo Hall of Fame, said that “Earl Bascom is the Michael Phelps of rodeo.“

Faith

Earl served a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Southern States, according to Church News, which helped lead to his years later spent bringing rodeo to Mississippi. He married his wife, Nadine Diffey, in the Salt Lake Temple in December 1939, and together they raised five children. Earl also served in various Church callings, including as bishop and patriarch of the Barstow and Victorville California stakes.

Brother Donald Bigler served as stake president while Earl was stake patriarch in Southern California.

“He was one of those people that I would consider a solid Saint in the kingdom,” he told Church News.

When Earl was posthumously inducted to the Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 2013, his youngest son, John A. Bascom, attended the ceremony on his behalf.

“He was faithful and true to the gospel,’” John told Church News. “Many looked up to him. He was a spiritual man, always honest in his dealings.”

https://www.ldsliving.com/did-you-know-the-father-of-modern-rodeo-was-a-latter-day-saint/s/11615

When is it OK to use the term ‘Mormon’?

(ldsliving.com 7-24-23)

Last month, the LDS Living staff was discussing whether to write a story about the swarms of Mormons crickets that were then plaguing parts of Nevada and Idaho. Many Church members, when they hear about modern hordes of grasshoppers, can’t help but recall the stories of the early pioneers who were saved from crickets just in time by devouring seagulls, now the Utah state bird.

But in our discussion, the question was asked, “Can we use the term Mormon cricket?” After all, LDS Living’s style guide says to avoid using the term Mormon. Should we now be saying “Latter-day Saint crickets?”

And we suspect we’re not the only ones. There are likely other members of the Church who are asking similar questions—and who might find it helpful to explore whether there are times when it’s appropriate to use Mormon, especially in light of President Nelson’s direction in the past few years.

Specifically, in a 2018 official statement and general conference address, President Nelson urged members and the media to refrain from using the terms Mormon to refer to the Church or its members.

At the same time, the Church Newsroom released new guidelines for referring to the Church, reflecting this call to largely abandon the term Mormon. But part of those guidelines mention two specific contexts in which it is appropriate to use the term Mormon, and these give LDS Living the direction we follow on Mormon crickets:

“Mormon” is correctly used in proper names such as the Book of Mormon or when used as an adjective in such historical expressions as “Mormon Trail”

(“Style Guide—The Name of the Church,” ChurchofJesusChrist.org).

According to these official guidelines, it’s OK to use “Mormon” as a proper name—which makes sense because a revered ancient prophet was named Mormon, as is the book of scripture that bears his name: the Book of Mormon.

But it’s also appropriate to refer to use “historical expressions” that use the term “Mormon.” The specific example given is Mormon Trail, which refers to the 1,300-mile-long route from Illinois to Utah that pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traveled in 1846–47. Today, the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, and its official name is the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.

Other historical expressions that use the word include Mormon pioneer, Mormon Battalion, Mormon War—and, yes, Mormon cricket.

Following these guidelines, LDS Living will continue to uphold our prophet’s direction to “restore the correct name of the Lord’s Church,” and we encourage members and media organizations to do the same.

In so doing, we refrain from using the term Mormon the vast majority of the time, but we also recognize the guidance that once in a while—and in very specific contexts—the word still has a limited place in Latter-day Saint vocabulary.

https://www.ldsliving.com/when-is-it-ok-to-use-the-term-mormon/s/11611

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The original name of this blog was "Mormon Village", and sometimes I wonder if I should have left the name alone. 

But "LatterDayTemplar" is kind of cool too so I guess it is alright. 

The Translation of the Book of Mormon - Interview with Royal Skousen

What became of the oak coffins that carried Joseph and Hyrum Smith after they were martyred

(by Trent Toone 6-26-23)

After a mob rushed the Carthage Jail and killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith in 1844, the martyrs' bodies were transported back to Nauvoo, Illinois, in a pair of rough-hewn oak coffins.

A short time later, pieces of the oak planks were used to make canes, with some containing locks of the brothers' hair in the ivory knob, as special mementos and sacred relics for some of the Prophet's closest friends, including Willard Richards, Heber C. Kimball, Dimick Huntington, Wilford Woodruff and Brigham Young.

What little is known about these "Canes of the Martyrdom" was compiled and published by a Brigham Young University history student named Steven G. Barnett in 1981.

"The Canes of the Martyrdom are a very real part of the Mormon heritage," Barnett wrote. "Shrouded in mystery as they are, the canes stand as a testimony of the love the owners shared for the Prophet Joseph Smith and his work."

This June 27 marks the 175th anniversary of the martyrdom.

Barnett's four-page history features several references to the canes in Latter-day Saint literature.

One comes from the "Life of Heber C. Kimball," by Orson F. Whitney.

"How much would you give for even a cane that Father Abraham had used, or a coat or ring that the Savior had worn? The rough oak boxes in which the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were brought from Carthage, were made into canes and other articles," Whitney wrote. "I have a cane made from the plank of one of those boxes, so has Brother Brigham and a great many others, and we prize them highly and esteem them a great blessing."

In a journal entry dated Aug. 23, 1844, Woodruff writes about visiting Emma Smith and her letting him have a piece of oak for "a staff" taken from the coffin of the Prophet Joseph. She also let him have a pair of gloves and a cotton handkerchief which he used. He also visited Mary Fielding Smith, Hyrum's wife, who gave him hair from Joseph, Hyrum, Samuel Smith, and Don Carlos Smith.

"My object was in putting a portion of each in the top of my staff as a relic of those noble men, master spirits of the nineteenth century, to hand down to my posterity," Woodruff wrote.

Some of these canes are still around today.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has two "coffin canes," both of which are on display near Joseph and Hyrum's death masks in "The Heavens Are Open" exhibit at the Church History Museum.

One, presented to President Joseph F. Smith in 1905, bears the inscription: "Presented by Brigham Young to Sidney Rigdon, 1844."

Huntington was the original owner of the second cane, which was donated in the name of George Joseph Huntington.

The Daughters of Utah Pioneers also have two canes in its collection at the Pioneer Memorial Museum. Both canes have ivory handles, although one has hair in the knob and the other does not. The cane without hair is on the first floor in case 67. The cane with hair is on the third floor, in case 2, DUP officials said.

Other coffin canes exist in private hands, according to Reid Moon, owner of Moon's Rare Books and a collector of early Latter-day Saint artifacts.

In his dealings and speaking to hundreds of groups over the last 20 years, Moon estimated that more than 99 percent of his audiences have never heard of the coffin canes.

"I became fascinated by these 'coffin canes' after I first read about their existence in a sermon given by Heber C. Kimball in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in 1857," Moon said. "As someone who collects early church artifacts, I put these few lost 'canes of the martyrdom' right up there with the Holy Grail."

https://www.ldsliving.com/what-became-of-the-oak-coffins-that-carried-joseph-and-hyrum-smith-after-they-were-martyred/s/91118

Utah Bride Discovers Her Mother-In-Law Was a Nurse Who Helped Deliver Her

(people.com 6-30-23)

Tyler West and Kelsey Poll met when she was working as a bank teller inside a grocery store in August 2021. They were both students at Weber State University. When he deposited a check, they chatted, he finished grocery shopping, then came back and asked for her number.

“He is just the sweetest guy ever,” she says.

On Super Bowl Sunday this year, Tyler surprised Kelsey with a sunset beach proposal in Puerto Vallarta. 

“I was excited to have my best friend around at all times,” Tyler tells PEOPLE.

Shortly after they got engaged, they went to dinner with both of their parents. Tyler’s mom, Mary Ann West, thought Kelsey’s mom, Stacy Poll, looked familiar.

“I’m like, ‘Where do I know her from?’” Mary Ann tells PEOPLE. She wondered if she met her performing at the community theater, the gym or at work — she's a registered nurse at Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful, Utah. “I couldn’t quite put my finger on it,” says Mary Ann, 49. 

On March 16, as the couple was gathering pictures for a slideshow at their wedding, Kelsey got out her baby book. Flipping through, Tyler stopped at a photo of a nurse foot printing the newborn and said, "That is my mom!"

Kelsey is the third child out of five. None of her siblings’ baby books have pictures of the nurses — but Tyler’s mother was a very special nurse. 

“My heart dropped with excitement,” Stacy Poll, 47, tells PEOPLE. “It made so much sense.”

Stacy Poll remembers being very stressed and scared when she was in labor with Kelsey. When Stacy learned she was pregnant with Kelsey, she had a 9-month-old baby. She worried about how she would be a good mom to three children under three and work full time. 

Mary Ann told her she understood — she had just had her third baby herself and was back at work. She held Stacy’s hand and told her, "You’ve got this." 

“She calmed my soul,” Stacy says. 

And she has it all on video. Stacy went to the basement and dragged out the camcorder recording of Kelsey’s birth. They watched it and heard Mary Ann’s voice encouraging Stacy and telling her about Tyler. They watched as Mary Ann held Kelsey and said, "Hello, baby," and was the very first person to welcome her to the world.

Stacy texted Mary Ann, saying that she knew where she knew her from. 

"I completely remembered that delivery — even though I’ve delivered thousands of babies over almost 30 years — but I remember her delivery," says Mary Ann. "That was really special. It just made me love Kelsey and Stacy even more, and [I'm] just thrilled to have them part of our family."

The couple wed on May 25. Kelsey’s connection to Tyler’s mother has deepened. "She really is another mom," Kelsey says.

The two moms live about 10 minutes apart and are constantly talking and texting. "They’re besties now," Tyler says. "The two of them are doing things without us."

The moms are planning hikes, date nights and adventures.

"If we weren’t sisters in life, this definitely brought us closer — we’ll be moms," Stacy says. "She should have been my sister, but instead we were blessed to be mothers together."

They envision years of sharing grandchildren and spending special occasions together. 

"Seeing the video of me holding sweet little Kelsey and handing her to Stacy — it just brings it full circle," Mary Ann says. "This whole family, we were meant to be."

https://people.com/utah-bride-discovers-mother-in-law-nurse-helped-deliver-her-my-extraordinary-family-7555503#:~:text=Utah%20Bride%20Discovers%20Her%20Mother,Who%20Helped%20Deliver%20Her%20(Exclusive)&text=Flipping%20through%20his%20fianc%C3%A9e's%20baby,woman%20he%20planned%20to%20marry.