The Active Historian

Bertha Kaepernik was born in 1883. Her family moved to Colorado and she was riding horses by the time she was five years old!

She would become known as “the most famous woman rider in rodeo.”

She helped pioneer women’s competitions in rodeo, but also wasn’t afraid to compete against the men in the arena. In 1904, she broke the gender barrier at the Cheyenne Frontier Days when she accepted management’s challenge for a lady bronc rider.

She married Dell Blancett in 1909 and they rodeoed together for several years. Dell was a bulldogger and Bertha often served as his “hazer” in the arena. 

Bertha was a prolific rider and won many titles including Pendleton’s Relay Race Championship three times in 1911, 1912, and 1913 respectively.

She also won the Cowgirls’ Relay Race at Calgary in 1912. She was awarded $500. She also placed third in the ‘Cowgirls’ Bucking Horse Riding,’ third in the ‘Cowgirls’ Fancy Roping,’ and second in the ‘Cowgirls’ Trick and Fancy Roping.’ She won $1150 in total at this rodeo.

Bertha and Del Blancett traveled overseas giving demonstrations with other cowboys and cowgirls. They even visited Australia in July 1913!

Pictured below, you can see Bertha’s “Champion Lady Bronc Rider” trophy saddle from the 1914 Pendleton Round-Up. It has floral tooling and a silver-inlaid horn. According to the East Oregonian, she was 12 points shy of winning the all-around.

The blog cover photo for this post is on exhibition at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Bertha was photographed by Walter S. Bowman on Eagle at the Pendleton Round-Up. She was riding for the Championship of the World.

According to the contemporary newspapers, Bertha successfully rode Gray Eagle, Eagle and Dempsey to win the 1915 Cowgirl Bucking Contest in front of a crowd of 16,000 people at the Pendleton Round-Up. She won $125 and an $18 pair of boots presented by Alexander’s. She successfully defended her 1914 title! (East Oregonian, September 25, 1915)

Bertha and Dell both competed at the 1915 Pendleton Round-Up, see the photo below from the East Oregonian. 

In addition to rodeo, she worked with Bison Films in Los Angeles and performed with the Pawnee Bill and 101 Ranch Wild West shows. She worked with stars like Tom Mix and Bebe Daniels.

Sadly, Dell was killed while fighting with the Canadian Forces in World War I in France in March 1918, leaving Bertha a widow for the remainder of her life.

Upon retiring from competition in 1919, she occasionally rode as a pickup rider in California rodeos. Additionally, Bertha became a guide in Yosemite National Park.

She passed away in 1979 at the age of 95.

In 1975, Bertha Kaepernik Blancett was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. She was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in 1999.

Concluding Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed learning about the life and legacy of Bertha Kaepernik Blancett. I’ll see you next time as we continue ‘breaking trail’ to uncover the stories of the American West.

I’ll talk to ya soon!

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Sources

“Arena Legacy: The Heritage of American Rodeo” by Richard C. Rattenbury. [Page 10]

Panel at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Websites

“Bertah Kaepernik Blancett.” National Rodeo Hall of Fame. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

“Bertha Blancett.” National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

Chris Enss. “COWGIRL Iconic: Bertha Kaepernik Blancett.” COWGIRL Magazine. November 18, 2021.

“A Century of the Round-Up.” East Oregonian Website. September 5, 2010.

Newspapers

“Stampede Results in Detail.” Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), September 9, 1912.

“Miss Bertha Blanchetts’ Cowboys and Cowgirl.” The Evening Telegraph (Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia), July 10, 1913.

“Del Blancett Says: ‘We’ll All Be There.” The Grangeville Globe (Grangeville, Idaho), September 11, 1913.

“Canada Pensions Bertha Blancett,” Albany Daily Democrat (Albany, Oregon) October 28, 1913.

“Dell and Bertha Blancett.” East Oregonian (Pendleton, Oregon) September 24, 1915.

“Bertha Blancett Wins Championship in the Bucking Contest; 16,000 People See Events at Last Day of the Round-Up.” East Oregonian (Pendleton, Oregon), September 25, 1915.

“Bertha Blanchett [sic], Woman Champion Rider, Is Here.” The Times-News (Twin Falls, Idaho), June 22, 1919.

“Yosemite Woman Guide Gains Official Praise For Forest Fire Fight.” The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, California), July 8, 1922.

“Woman Park Guide Is Cited For Bravery.” The Dothan Eagle (Dothan, Alabama), July 29, 1922.

“Woman Guide Officially Commended.” The Anaconda Standard (Anaconda, Montana), July 30, 1922.

[Obituary]: “Bertha Blancett.” Tulare Advance-Register (Tulare, California), July 6, 1979.

*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” blog series for the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.