C.B. Irwin

Stock Contractor • Inducted 1979

By 1915, it took 18 railroad cars to move Charles Burton (C.B.) Irwin’s livestock and equipment to rodeos throughout the North America. He once produced a special one-day rodeo for President Theodore Roosevelt, who had missed Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days. This early-day rodeo entrepreneur was born on Aug. 16, 1877, in Chillocothe, Mo. He started as a blacksmith on the site of the present Antlers Adam’s Mark Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo. Later, as a freight agent, he expedited stock movement for rodeos. Eventually, with his brother, William, he acquired homesteads that grew to an 80,000-acre spread called the N Bar V ranch in Horse Creek, Wyo., home base for his own livestock and rodeo operation. His stock expanded to 300 horses, 300 Mexican steers, running horses for relay and pony express races and all the equipment needed to produce rodeos. The career and life of the leading rodeo producer of his day ended when Irwin was killed in a 1934 auto accident.

Cheyenne Frontier Days
Cheyenne, Wyoming

Steer Roping: 1906

Born: August 16, 1877 in Chillocothe, Missouri
Died: 1934 in Cheyenne, Wyoming