EVENTS
Rodeo Producer
Rodeo Livestock Contractor
Born at Platteville, Colorado, in 1890, Verne Elliott learned to cowboy on the family ranch. In 1907 at Cheyenne, he entered his first contest. After a brief three-year career as a roper and bronc rider, he was injured and retired from competition.
The greatest partnership in rodeo stock contracting was formed in 1917 by Verne Elliott and Eddie McCarty. They dominated the business during the 1920s and 1930s, furnishing rough stock to huge productions like Cheyenne, Denver, Omaha, Pendleton, Fort Worth and New York. Their most infamous buckers were Midnight and Five Minutes to Midnight. In 1918 at Fort Worth, McCarty and Elliott also produced the first rodeo ever held indoors.
Verne Elliott became one of the most successful rodeo stockmen in the business. He possessed a keen sense of showmanship and once rode a buffalo at the Cheyenne Frontier Days for President Theodore Roosevelt. Verne Elliott merged his contracting business with Beutler Brothers in 1952. He passed from the arena a decade later.
