Ruth Scantlin grew up in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, where she started riding her uncle's Shetland Ponies at about the age of three. She taught herself to do trick horse riding during her childhood, for fun. After completing the eighth grade, Ruth, who was a scant 5'2" tall, left home and travelled to Oklahoma to join the Miller's 101 Ranch rodeo in 1914, as a trick rider. Prior to the start of the show season, she married bronc rider, Bryan Roach, and became Ruth Roach. She was known as Ruth Roach throughout her rodeo career.
Ruth and Bryan Roach traveled with the 101 Ranch show on a 1914 European tour, where they performed in France, England, Ireland, and Belgium. During the tour, however, World War I broke out, the show was cancelled, all of the rodeo horses were confiscated by the British for their war effort, and the performers returned to the United States.
Ruth continued to perform in rodeo shows all over the U.S. in such places as New York City, Boston, Pendleton, Cheyenne, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and St. Louis. She joined the Hagenback-Wallace Circus for a time and began to ride bucking horses in addition to trick riding, making her bronc riding debut at the 1917 Fort Worth rodeo. She performed in Madison Square Garden, in New York City, every season from 1916 to 1934.
Ruth and Bryan Roach took a second trip to Europe with the John "Tex" Austin rodeo in 1924. After this second rodeo tour of Europe was finished, a man named Tommy Kirnan formed a group, including Ruth and Bryan, which continued to perform in London and Paris for several months. They appeared on stage at the London Palladium and gave a command performance for the British royal family. During their stay in London, the group was given special permission to ride on the royal bridle path, sometimes in the company of the King.
By 1936, Ruth and Bryan Roach had divorced and she was working for W. D. Johnson in a rodeo show at the Texas State Fair. During her time performing at the Fair, she met a Texas rancher named Fred (Dick) Salmon, who owned 2,000 acres near Nocona, in Montague County. After a two-year courtship, Ruth married Dick and became a rancher's wife, a role she enjoyed for the rest of her life. She died in 1986, at the age of ninety.
Ruth Scantlin Roach Salmon is an inductee in the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame (1989) and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame (1989). She is the winner of several titles, including World's Champion All Around Cowgirl, World's Champion Trick Rider, and World's Champion Girl Bronc Rider. In addition to these titles, she was also acclaimed as one of the world's most beautiful cowgirls and her pictures were featured on calendars and rodeo placards all over the country.
The records of the Ruth Scantlin Roach Salmon Collection document the life of rodeo cowgirl, Ruth Roach, and focus primarily on her 24-year career as a trick rider and bronc buster in the 1920s and 1930s. The majority of the records consist of 343 black and white photographs taken during her rodeo days, although there are six folders of written materials, as well. The photographs record the various venues in which she performed and her many friends in rodeo. Some are action shots taken by a professional photographer during rodeo performances. A select number of un-copyrighted black and white photographs from this collection are available for viewing on the Portal to Texas History at http://texashistory.unt.edu/
The materials in this collection are organized into two series: Series 1, Written Records; and Series 2, Photographs. The materials in the written records series include six folders of original and photocopied news clippings; stationary, cards, letters, and copies of chapters from books and articles about Ruth Roach and her rodeo friends, 1929-1981, n.d. The materials in the Photographs series include 344 black and white photos, most of them copyrighted, and three folders with photocopies of photos in the collection, 1914-1981. One photograph is separated from the collection and stored in a sink mat box (1989) and the very large news clippings are stored in an oversize box (1989).
Open for research.
There is an oral history interview, OH 87, with Ruth Roach in the UNT Archives.
For reproduction of any copyrighted materials, permission must be obtained from the owner of the copyright. This is a responsibility of individual researchers, not the University Archives.
Materials are available for research only in the University of North Texas Archives, during its normal hours of operation. Materials are not loaned out. Depending upon how fragile the materials are, they may or may not be allowed to be photocopied or scanned.
The Ruth Scantlin Roach Salmon Collection materials were donated to the University of North Texas Archives by Ruth Roach Salmon in 1984.
Ruth Scantlin Roach Salmon Collection, University of North Texas Archives, Denton, Texas.