The Active Historian

Eloise Fox Hastings was active during the first golden era of rodeo and competed in steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding and trick riding. She would be known for steer wrestling though!

She appeared in the Irwin Brother’s Wild West Show in 1914. She performed trick riding and rode broncs in the show. She married Mike Hastings in 1914 and they both traveled with the show.

In 1916, she appeared in her first rodeo at Guy Weadick’s New York Stampede. Fox competed in all of the women’s events in early rodeo! She eventually learned to steer wrestle from her husband. In 1927, she competed against Bob Crosby in a steer-wrestling match.

Fox was billed as the only lady steer wrestler at several rodeos with people buying tickets just to see her compete. She weighed in around 135 pounds and stood about five feet, eight inches tall. She would still bring the steer down! Eventually more women began trying the event and she was no longer the only one.

Additionally, photographers loved Fox Hastings because she always dressed nice and had great style. She was known for her big hats and “dramatic” clothing!

Fox and her husband, Mike separated in mid-1929. She married Charlie Wilson later that October and they traveled together from 1930-1935 on the rodeo circuit.

Fox was tough and battled through several injuries during her time on the rodeo circuit, but she always came back wanting to compete. She retired from rodeo around 1935 due to health complications. Her husband, Charlie cared for her during this time.

She passed away in 1948 in Phoenix, Arizona three months after her husband passed away. She was fifty years old.

Fox Hastings was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1987 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. She was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in 2011.

Concluding Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed learning about the life of Fox Hastings and learned something new today. I can’t wait to see you in the next post – I’ll talk to ya soon!

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Sources

“Arena Legacy: The Heritage of American Rodeo” by Richard C. Rattenbury.

Eloise Fox Wilson – Death Certificate (Found on Ancestry.com)

Frank Whitehead. “The Bulldogging Housewife: Fox Hastings and the Creation of a Feminine Space in the Rodeo Arena.” Journal of Arizona History, Volume 62, Number 4, Winter 2021. [Pages 537-561]

Photographs

“Texas rodeo performer [Fox Hastings].” Erwin E. Smith. 1920s. Gelatin dry plate negative. Erwin E. Smith Collection of the Library of Congress on Deposit at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. LC.S6.531. (Public Domain)

Websites

“Fox Hastings.” National Rodeo Hall of Fame. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

“Eloise ‘Fox Hastings’ Wilson.” National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

Chris Enss. “COWGIRL Iconic: Fox Hastings.” COWGIRL Magazine. March 29, 2021.

Chris Enss. “Wild Women Of The West: Fox Hastings.” COWGIRL Magazine. March 1, 2023.

Newspapers

“Daring Cowgirl To Bulldog Wild Steers At Triangle Ranch Rodeo.” Wichita Falls Times (Wichita Falls, Texas) April 20, 1924.

“She’s Woman Roper.” The Oklahoma News (Oklahoma City, OK), May 9, 1924.

“Fox Hastings, World’s Only Lady Bulldogger At Tri State Round-Up.” The Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (Deadwood, South Dakota) June 7, 1924.

“Noted Woman Performer Here.” Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Arizona) February 21, 1925.

“Fox Hastings.” Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise (Bartlesville, Oklahoma) July 1, 1925.

“Breaks Leg Bulldogging Steer.” The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kansas) July 15, 1925.

“‘Champion Cowgirl’s’ Grit Is Now Talk of Wild West.” The San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, California) August 14, 1925.

“Riding for a Fall.” San Francisco Bulletin (San Francisco, California), December 4, 1926.

“Woman Bulldogger Here For Rodeo.” El Paso Evening Post (El Paso, Texas), September 17, 1929.

“Her Specialty Is Wrestling Steers.” Stockton Evening and Sunday Record (Stockton, California) May 5, 1932.

“A World’s Champion at Marysville.” The Corning Daily Observer (Corning, California) May 24, 1934.

*All newspaper clippings in this blog post were pulled from newspapers.com. I am not affiliated with this website. I just wanted to let you know where I found my digitized sources.

*Portions of this blog post were originally written for the “Breaking Trail” series for the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.