EVENTS
Rodeo Producer
Born in Tennessee in 1888, Jim Eskew was sent at age ten to his uncle’s ranch near Garland, Texas, where he learned to rope and ride. A restless youth, he joined a Wild West Show in 1903. By 1907 he was part of the famed 101 Ranch extravaganza. Later he joined the combined Buffalo Bill-Pawnee Bill Show.
In the early 1930s the self-styled ‘colonel’ (a common promotional title) launched his own venture, JE Ranch Rodeo. For over 30 years Colonel Jim Eskew was a prominent producer of eastern venues, including Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, Syracuse, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C., as well as Toronto, Canada, and Havana, Cuba.
Known for an ability to recognize good bucking horses, Eskew discovered the two famous broncs Midnight and Five Minutes to Midnight and sold them to rodeo stockmen Eddie McCarty and Verne Elliott. Colonel Jim Eskew closed his rodeo in 1957. He retired to Ardmore, Oklahoma, where he died in 1965.
