Steamboat: World’s Worst Bucking Horse

Photo: A replica of Steamboat, that was on the Buffalo Carousal for many years. It was carved by Buffalo artist Bill Jennings and painted by his son, Hugh. Steamboat wears a Cheyenne Cowboy Saddle from the 1902 Sears and Roebuck catalog.

Since it is WYO Rodeo week in Sheridan, this week the history story is about the best-known bucking horse in the Wyoming rodeo world, Steamboat. For 15 years, from 1909 until 1914, Steamboat was the most popular draw at the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days celebration.

Steamboat was often in the headlines of the newspapers throughout the state, like this article in the Cheyenne Daily Leader, September 1, 1905 – Steamboat Comes Today. Celebrated Old Outlaw Is Entered For Frontier Bucking Contests. Meanest Horse in America Will Demonstrate That Pin Ears is a Gentle Ladies’ Mount – Buckers may come and buckers may go, but Steamboat bucks on forever. Year in and year out the gallant old outlaw turns up at Frontier Days and each time he comes he is filled with more cussedness than the time before. He never knows when he has had enough, never quits, and, some day he will drop dead in the midst of a bucking stunt. For five years Steamboat has been a premier performer and strong drawing card at Frontier Days, but this year it seemed that he would be missed.

He was in the East and the Frontier association despaired of securing his services. Last night, however, a telegram was received that Steamboat had started for Cheyenne and that he would arrive today.

He will be one of the horses reserved for the finals in the championship bucking and pitching contest. Steamboat is a past master in the art of bucking. He learned all there was to know about the game, and then took several post-graduate courses. From each of them he emerged a little sourer and a little more adept in the gentle art of shaking out a busters teeth, until now he has come to be the standard by which all bad horses are gauged.

His relative, Young Steamboat, is somewhat of a performer under the saddle, but he’s not in the same class with the old boy. Pin Ears, the much touted Colorado outlaw, is said, by those who have seen him perform to compare with Steamboat about as well as would a rocking horse with three legs.

The cowboys say Yellow Jacket is hell to ride, but Steamboat is hellier. which is a high compliment, as Yellow Jacket occupies a little niche all his own in the estimation of men who appear in Angora chaps and his spurs once a year and common sense garb the remainder of the time.

There are outlaws and outlaws, but Steamboat has no peer among them.

He is it.

These advertisements and short bits from the Wyoming Semi-Weekly Tribune, June 6, 1913 and the Wyoming Tribune (Cheyenne), September 2, 1904. Note the Sheridan man won champion rough rider of the world that year, and Steamboat won worst horse.

Reports from those who knew him said that Steamboat was a handsome horse, coal black with three white feet. He got his name due to a whistling noise he made when he breathed, caused by a broken cartilage inside his nose, and it was said that when he bucked he sounded like a riverboat whistle. He spend 15 years of his professional life with the Irwin Bros Wild West Show.

Everyone wanted to be known as the cowboy who rode Steamboat, and it was sometimes confusing as several other horses were also named ‘Steamboat.’ In the Wyoming Tribune (Cheyenne) on October 1, 1903 – Regarding Steamboat: John C. Coble Makes a Correction Regarding the Famous Outlaw. Mr. John C. Coble of Bosler, the owner of the famous black outlaw “Steamboat,” has sent to the press the following correction of a report concerning that horse’s performance: “Bosler Wyo., Sept. 29.— I note by the Laramie Boomerang and other papers that Guy Holt lost the championship in Laramie on the same horse that he won on in Cheyenne. In Cheyenne he rode Steamboat II; In Laramie he rode Steamboat I, and it is the only time that Guy Holt ever attempted to ride Steamboat I. The best exhibition ever seen on Steamboat I was by Frank Irwin at the Frontier contest in 1902. The only times he has been on the animal (twice) he has been thrown off. We believe that no living rider can ‘ride Steamboat I without spurs and whip the horse every time he hits the ground.

According to an article in the Wyoming Semi-Weekly Tribune in Cheyenne on October 16, 1914, when reporting on the death of Steamboat, it also talks about the horse’s history.

Old Steamboat, World’s Worst Bucking Broncho, Is Mercifully (put down) “Old Steamboat, the worst bucking horse in the world, was put down today to end is suffering from blood poisoning which resulted from and injury sustained recently while he was on the road with the Irwin Bros. Wild West show. Steamboat was probably the most famous of all horse. ….no other horse could buck so hard, nor was any other outlaw possess of such endurance and such wicked resourcefulness.

At Helena, MT, just before he was hurt, he threw the last man that attempted to ride him. Steamboat was seventeen years of age. Fifteen years of his life was spent in combating would-be conquerors. Hundreds of the best riders in the world essayed to tame him but none succeeded.

Once, and only once, was the horse ridden to a finish, and that under conditions which heavily handicapped him. The rider on that occasion was Dick Stanley of Portland, Ore., probably the most daring and skillful “buster” that ever bestrode a broncho, and the great ride was made in 1906. It won for Stanley the rough riding championship of the world.

The field was hock-deep with soft mud and Steamboat slipped and floundered until he was exhausted. He bucked terrifically but the insecure footing robbed his efforts of their customary potency and when, at last, he dropped his head, Stanley was still in the saddle and had never reached for leather.

Steamboat was bred on the Bosler ranch on the Laramie plains. He first became prominent in 1909, when he won the worst horse championship at the third of Cheyenne’s Frontier Days celebration. He performed in every celebration here, and n hundreds elsewhere, durum the ensuing ten years and never failed to be awarded worst-horse honors. During the past several years he has been used exclusively in exhibitions in the Irwin Bios.’ Wild West show. In the earlier days of wild western celebrations, before such events became so popular that an unusually mean bucker became of value far greater than that of the best-bred horse, Steamboat for a time went begging.

John C. Coble, manager of the ranch on which he was born, presented him to the Cheyenne lodge of Elks, ironically suggesting that he might be used as a “goat.” The lodge, however, quickly found that it was the “goat” Steamboat was no good for anything but bucking and was so vicious that no ranchman cared to have him about his horses. The lodge directors decided that the best thing to do was to get rid of him, but nobody then wanted him.

Eventually he was returned to his birthplace. Later Big Charlie lrwin, realizing the animal’s value, for show purposes, secured him.

There was sincere mourning at the headquarters of Irwin Bros. show this morning when sentence of death was passed on the old warrior The horse. despite his suffering, was yet defiant and faced the executioners with head up and a trace of his old fire in his eyes.

A monument will be erected over his grave

The Riverton Review and the Riverton Republican, December 18, 1914 – Old Steamboat May Be Buried During Frontier – headed by the cowboys of the state, a movement is under way to disinter the body of “Old Steamboat” the worlds worst horse, who was (put down) several weeks ago to end his suffering from blood poisoning, and to re-inter the body in Frontier Park. At these ceremonies, it is planned that a shaft to the memory of the “king of the plains” be erected over the horse’s grave. “Old Steamboat” has been buried near the old dump ground adjoining the stock yards.

There is no marker over his grave and it is held that unless action is soon taken, the great bucking horse who, could not be subdued will have vanished from sight forever Steamboat has added greatly to the fame of Frontier Days and Frontier Park is the logical place for hie grave. The idea was conceived by Dr. B. F. Davis, state veterinarian. He suggested the movement to a number of cowboys who were quick to become enthused. A subscription probably will be solicited early in the spring and action will be token.— Tribune.

This from The Buffalo Bulletin, May 27, 1915 – Whether or not a monument to old Steamboat, the meanest bucking horse that ever lived, will he elected at Frontier Park In Cheyenne, has not been decided, but the Frontier Days committee is considering a proposal that the unveiling of such a monument be made a feature of the coming Frontier Days celebration July 21, 22, 23 and 24.

Today, Steamboat is buried on the Cheyenne Frontier Park grounds near bucking chute #9. In 1975, the famous horse was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

The bucking horse on the Wyoming License plant, designed in 1936, is said to be Steamboat, some sources say it was taken from a photo by Professor B.C. Buffum of Guy Holt riding Steamboat. Two artists have been credited for the artwork that appears on the Wyoming license plates, George Ostrom and Allen True. Most sources say that True’s is given the credit.

The ‘World’s Worst Bucking Bronco” was a big draw at the early Cheyenne Days celebrations, and he is remembered as an iconic Wyoming symbol that lives on to this day.