Lifetime Leaders of Rodeo & Ranching Rodeo Ranching Great Westerner Western Entertaiment & Arts Rodeo Producers & Livestock Special Achievement Cowboy Long Rider Legacy Award

Ranching

Benton (Ben) C. Bird
2000 Hall of Fame Ranching Inductee

  Benton C. Bird was born in Denison, Texas, on December 7, 1864, to John and Dovie Bird, who had moved there from Virginia. In 1881, he started his career as a cowboy and went to work for Adair and Goodnight on their JA Ranch in Palo Duro Canyon. This was his first association with celebrated "Steeldust" ponies. He stayed at the JA for three years.

 Ben made his first trip north in 1883, trailing a herd of 2,800 mossy-horned steers. He said, "We delivered them near the mouth of the Missouri about 125 miles north of Miles City, Montana. We helped gather some beef that fall and then got a train ride to Chicago with the beef . . . passes back to Texas."

 Back in Texas, Ben and another young man rode further south to pick cotton and bet on weekend horse races. The races paid off better than the cow punching and were more fun, he said. In 1885, Ben trailed horses north for the Hashknife outfit in eastern Montana. In 1886, he trailed steers north for the OX outfit, returning to Texas again that fall. In the spring of 1887, Ben trailed a herd of remittance steers north for the government to Fort Pierre, South Dakota. He made his last trip north in the spring of 1892 when former schoolmates Bob Wilcox and Wilse Richards asked him to help move a herd of steers to a new-found grass area in Dakota Territory near the Killdeer Mountains. They trailed the herd from Amarillo, Texas, to the Killdeer Mountains to a ranch alter known as the Diamond C.

 Ben and Tim Randall started dealing in horses near the Killdeer Mountains in the 1890s, buying 100 head of raw broncs from Montana. They would break them and sell them to homesteaders at a nice profit. Ben began managing the Riverside Horse Ranch southwest of Mandan in the fall of 1893, staying there for seven years. He had 3,800 horses to manage and sell on a commission basis.

 Ben married Ida Connelly at the Riverside in 1896, and they moved to California because of Ida's poor health. There he drove stagecoach from Raymond to Yosemite Valley. They came back to North Dakota in 1905 and purchased the Jack Watson ranch. They also set up a livery stable in New Salem and later in Almont and Carson. Ben also helped settlers located land and livestock. Ben and Ida had six children, and she died in 1917. He lived in the Medora community for many years.

 A highly skilled horseman, he was known for sitting tall and straight in the saddle. He participated in steer roping and horse racing in local rodeos. At age 75, he won his last calf-roping title and his last major steer-roping contest at age 77. Ben raced and traded horses at county fairs and powwows and followed horse racing for decades. One of his biggest thrills was receiving an International Racing Association lifetime recognition trophy at Phoenix, Arizona, in 1959.

 Ben was a member of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, the Cody International Cowboys Association, the Old Trail Drovers of Texas and the Range Riders Association of Montana. He served 25 years as a Stock Protective Association undercover agent and also as a deputy sheriff. Ben was a quiet and direct man who was known for his kindness, humility, fairness, honesty and sense of humor.

 He died at the Beach hospital on April 1, 1962, and is buried in the Almont Cemetery, beside his wife, Ida.