The Active Historian

Known as “The World’s Most Beautiful Cowgirl,” Ruth Roach was born in 1896 at Excelsior Springs, Missouri. She learned to ride on her uncle’s donkeys and then joined the 101 Ranch Wild West Show at the age of sixteen. She married Buck Roach in 1914. 

Ruth entered her first rodeo in 1917 at Lucille Mulhall’s Fort Worth Rodeo successfully riding a bronc that had bucked several of the male contestants. 

In 1919, she won the Ladies’ Bronc-Riding title at Cheyenne. Ruth was also a great trick rider and won the title at Cheyenne and Pendleton for that event in 1919 as well.

She won the trophy below in November 1925 for Bronc Riding at Tampa, Florida. You can see this trophy at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas.

A Horse in the Hotel Lobby?!

Movies

Ruth also posed for advertisements and appeared in silent movies alongside some of the biggest stars of the day. She was often seen wearing huge hair bows and her trademark hand-tooled boots with hearts on them.

Retirement

Ruth retired from active competition in 1938 after marrying Fred Salmon. She made one exception and came out of retirement in 1942 for a single event. Supporting World War II efforts, she appeared in Vaughn Krieg’s Flying V All Cow-Girl Rodeo in the Bronc Riding event.

Ruth Roach passed away in 1986. 

In 1989, Ruth Roach was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame in 1999.

Newspaper Clippings

Check out these contemporary newspaper clippings! You can see several examples of Ruth Roach’s style.

Concluding Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed reading about Ruth Roach and learned something new today. Join me next time as we continue ‘breaking trail’ through Western history.

I’ll talk to ya soon!

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Sources

“Arena Legacy: The Heritage of American Rodeo” by Richard C. Rattenbury. [Pages – 57, 58-59, 63, 153, 321, 328]

Websites

“Ruth Scantlin Roach.” National Rodeo Hall of Fame. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

“Ruth Roach Salmon.” National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

“Ruth Roach.” Texas Trail of Fame.

“FWSSR History.” Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo.

Photographs

“Female bronc rider [Ruth Roach] at Texas rodeo.” Erwin E. Smith. ca. 1920-1926. 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.S6.567. (Public Domain)

“Texas rodeo performer [Ruth Roach].” 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.S6.526. (Public Domain)

Newspapers

“Gee, Speaker’s Always With Winners.” The Butte Miner (Butte, Montana) March 19, 1921.

“First Annual Rodeo Opens Thursday, 2 P.M.” Joplin Globe (Joplin, Missouri) September 23, 1923.

“Girl Star of Rodeo.” Fort Worth Record-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas) February 24, 1923.

“Ruth Roach and Mamie Stroud Have Become Star Performers of the Livestock Arena Card.” Fort Worth Record-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas) Marc 13, 1919.

“Wild West Performers Are To Entertain Celebration Visitors.” Shawnee News-Star (Shawnee, Oklahoma) June 30, 1935.

“Too Many Dude Ranchers in the Golden West.” Birmingham Post-Herald (Birmingham, Alabama) September 5, 1926.

“”Stunts” by Ruth Roach, Daring Girl Rider at Stock Show.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas) March 13, 1919.

“Three Stars of Rodeo.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas) March 16, 1919.

“Noted Riders Coming.” The Garden City Telegram (Garden City, Kansas), August 21, 1919.

“World Champion Broncho Busters Come to Round ‘Up.” The Waco Times-Herald (Waco, Texas), December 14, 1919.

“Crowd Yells as Woman Rides Pony in Texas Lobby.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas), March 12, 1922.

“Real Stars for the Riding Prince.” Birmingham Post-Herald (Birmingham, Alabama) April 20, 1924.

“Ruth Roach, One of World’s Best Cowgirl Trick Riders, to Enter Contests at Burnett Round-Up.” Wichita Falls Times (Wichita Falls, Texas) April 25, 1926.

*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.