ROCK SPRINGS – One of the famous Rock Springs cowboys was honored in Mississippi. The late rodeo champion Weldon Bascom was inducted into the Mississippi Rodeo Hall of Fame, where he was posthumously honored as a rodeo pioneer.
Bascom was born in Naples, Utah, in 1912 and grew up in Canada. He was the fourth son of Uintah County’s rancher and assistant sheriff, John W. Bascom.
As a professional rodeo cowboy, Weldon Bascom and his brother Earl Bascom helped produce a rodeo in the city of Columbia, Mississippi, while working for the Hickman Ranch in Lawrence County in 1935.
This rodeo was the first Mississippi rodeo and the first rodeo to have Brahma bulls riding as an event. Rodeo in Colombia is an annual event to this day.
The Bascom brothers came to Rock Springs in 1939 when they were among the best bull riders in the world.
Weldon Bascom took part in some of the big shows of the day, from Canada to California to New York and even London, England.
In 1934, Weldon Bascom made rodeo history as a contestant at the World Championship Rodeo in London as the last known cowboy to buck the famous Bucking Horse Midnight owned by rodeo producer Verne Elliot of Johnstown, Colorado.
Weldon Bascom later became a Hollywood film producer, stunt performer, and actor, while his wife, Texas Rose Bascom, also became a film actress.
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