Old Missoula

Scott & Lane Wild West Show – A Montana Outfit – Ed Lane, the Schall brothers and James “Grey” Scott

Producers of Rodeo Among the Best Known in the Entire United States

Scott and Lane Entered Show Business Many Years Ago. Experienced in Vaudeville.

Gray Scott and Ed Lane, under whose personal direction, Missoula’s Rodeo and Indian Congress is to be staged on July 4, in connection with the Pony Express Days celebration, are the producers of one of the most famous wild west shows in the entire country today, it is announced by Walter Manson, chairman of the committee in charge of Indian and Rodeo affairs.

Scott & Lane maintain a ranch and permanent headquarters for their shows near Arlee and are well known in Western Montana, having been in this section for many years.

Started Long Ago.

Ed Lane, has been in the wild west show business since the days of the Spanish American war, and was a personal friend of Theodore Roosevelt. Lane was one of the “Rough Riders” and was one of that group who charged over San Juan hill. It was in 1898, when William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody secured the “Rough Riders” for his wild west show, that Mr. Lane entered the wild west show business, it is learned. Gray Scott was featured as a trick roper with this show when his friend, Lane, joined it.

After several seasons with the Buffalo Bill show, Scott and Lane joined the Jones Brothers Buffalo ranch show, in 1910. Members of this show then, Mr. Scott recalls, were Frank James, a brother of Jesse James, and Cole Younger, a famous outlaw of the early West, who were featured attractions.

In Vaudeville.

Quitting the tent shows for a while, Scott & Lane went into vaudeville, where they toured the country in a headline roping act.

“Buffalo Bill,” in 1911, again secured a contract with his friends Scott & Lane to join his wild west circus. They spent the year with the show, Scott, exhibiting wild west horsemanship and serving as a pony express rider. Lane was a rider of bucking “broncs.”

In 1912 Scott & Lane, who had previously visited Western Montana and had then planned to move here, settled near Arlee, where they established their own circus headquarters and ranch, and became independent producers of rodeos, wild west and Indian shows. Their specialty was furnishing show horses and show Indians for the largest producers in the world. They have since produced shows for Ringling Brothers circus, the late Tex Rickard, who staged the largest wild west show in United States history in Madison Square Garden, Tex Austin, A. P. Day and many others. The Scott & Lane show was featured in the 1923 Madison Square Garden show in New York, and for three years in Tex Austin’s rodeo in Soldiers’ Field in Grant Park, Chicago in 1926, 1927 and 1928.

Los Angeles Show.

In 1927, when a group of Los Angeles millionaires, headed by A. P. Day, produced a rodeo show and underwrote it for millions in order to pick the best events available in the world, the Scott & Lane Indian and Horse show was chosen, it is stated by Mr. Manson.

For two consecutive years, the Scott & Lane show was produced in Spokane. When Will Steege, now of the Fox Theater corporation, was in charge of state’s (sic) largest rodeo shows, those held at Great Falls for five consecutive years, he chose these men to stage exhibitions.

Tex Austin, who is now producing the most elaborate wild west show and rodeo in London, sought the Scott & Lane show, but was unable to secure it.

The same Indian show and rodeo which has thrilled audiences who were attracted to the country’ greatest shows, will be seen in Missoula on July 4. It will include more than 50 Flathead Indians, more than 100 horses, including what is known as the world’s finest collection of pintos, palominos, appolochis (sic) and snow white show horses.

 

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on June 10, 1934.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/352112286/?terms=%22scott%2Band%2Blane%22

 

Simple Services Mark Passing of J. G. Scott Here

Brief Rites at Church, Masons in Charge at Grave For Rancher

Simple funeral rites marked the last earthly tribute to James Graham (Grey) Scott here. At the First Presbyterian church where Scott had asked that rites take place, Rev. David E. Jackson conducted brief services Saturday afternoon.

Friends of the rodeo manager and cattle rancher, who had lived in Western Montana since 1911, crowded the South Side church. Many were people of the soil – men and women who had known the genial rancher. A few showed that blood of redmen flowed through their veins. For “Grey” Scott was friendly to everyone, and as oldtimers talked Saturday of his death the words “square-shooter” were mostly used.

Famous as a rodeo chieftain, “Grey” had presented shows at Madison Square Garden, the “Broadway of rodeodom.” He brought his troop of Indians here two years ago this month at a Pony Express celebration.

There were many wet-eyed at the church. Ed Lane, elderly, straight-shouldered partner of “Grey” Scott, took the passing of his long-time friend hard. With head bowed in grief he stood while Masons conducted graveside rites at the Missoula cemetery. Mrs. Scott and other relatives were near the grave.

Under a burnished sun the ritual of the lodge took place. Robins in nearby trees called through the greenery above the floral offerings over the grave.

Many cars were in the procession to the cemetery. Heading the cortege was Highway Patrolman John J. Gilligan, whom the family had asked as an escort.

Men who had known “Grey” Scott for many years were pallbearers. They too are sons of the West. Some had left their ranches and business places to take part in the rites. They were R. H. Stahl, Lambert Demers, Allen Connerly, George Freshour, George N. Beckwith, and Glenn Mountjoy.

Ed Lane and “Grey” Scott had been connected in business ventures, and were close friends for 38 years. The white-haired Lane and Mr. Scott met at Pittsburgh in 1899, where Lane was in a roping act. They later worked in connection with the late Tex Rickard and with Tex Austin in rodeo and Indian shows. Both Lane and Scott were also connected with the original Buffalo Bill Wild West show, in which Scott was a pony express rider.

 

The above obituary appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on July 25, 1937.

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Edward Lane, Veteran Rancher, Dies

Edward K. Lane, 79, member of Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” on San Juan hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American war, veteran of “wild west” shows and for many years a rodeo man, died at a local hospital early Sunday, where he had been a patient for a short time. Mr. Lane for many years was a rancher at Arlee, in the Jocko valley.

He was born at West Middleton, Pa., August 31, 1867, and came to Montana first in 1886, 56 years ago and worked for the Duval Cattle company near Glendive. From Montana he drifted south to Indian territory and joined up during the Spanish-American war, going on the campaign to Cuba with the cavalry.

Mr. Lane was a member of the United Spanish War veterans.

A short time before his death, Mr. Lane recalled that when he enlisted in Indian territory in 1898 that two-thirds of his company was made up of Cherokee and Creek Indians. He said that in the first battle the captain and two lieutenants were killed by the first volley of fire. “I was not hurt – just scared. Roosevelt was a fearless fighter and all of the outfit liked him.”

After the war he came back to the states and was with the “wild west” shows, once being in the Buffalo Bill show and later with the 101 Ranch show. That is when he drifted into the show business, which was the forerunner of the present rodeos. He never got out of the rodeo business until incapacitated through an injury in a fall.

He came to Montana in 1902 and when the Flathead Indian reservation was opened to settlement, he and his late partner, Gray Scott, homesteaded adjoining ranches in the Jocko valley. For years it has been known as the Scott and Lane ranch. During Lane’s late years in the “wild west” shows, he rode broncos and Scott rode the pony express.

They continued to raise rodeo horses on their Jocko valley stock ranch. Following the death of Mr. Scott, Mr. Lane and the Scott family continued the ranching business. Besides their string of rodeo horses the Scott & Lane ranch produced beef cattle, principally whiteface.

Following the death of Mr. Scott, Mr. Lane continued in the rodeo business, joining with the Leo Cremer outfit of Big Timber, and annually traveled the intermountain circuit.

However, more than two years ago while rounding up some horses in midwinter, the horse of Mr. Lane slipped on ice and fell. He sustained a broken leg. Complications set in, and he could no longer be the active man he had been.

Mr. Lane never married. He was the last member of his family, the last sister dying in Oregon about three years ago. A niece is expected to arrive here Monday from Oregon.

The body is at the Marsh & Powell mortuary. Funeral arrangements are pending.

 

The above obituary appeared in The Daily Missoulian on November 11, 1946.

 

The Information below is taken from the website of the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame:

 

Ed Lane (1867 – 1946)

2013 Legacy Inductee District 10

Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame & Western Heritage Center

Ed Lane, born in Pennsylvania in 1867, was a cowboy who wrangled wild horses, retired as a volunteer with the Teddy Roosevelt Rough Riders, bred Appaloosas and Palominos, and partnered in the Scott and Lane Wild West Show. After chasing around Cuba with then Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt as a cowboy rough rider, Ed made Oklahoma his home. He owned a prize six–shooter from the Battle of San Juan and a brand, T Triangle R, from his friend “Teddy.”  Roosevelt also gave him an entrepreneurial license from the U.S. government, anything to help a Rough Rider, since he was not on the U.S. Army payroll. While in Oklahoma Ed trapped wild horses and sold them in the East. He met Reuben Schall, also from Pennsylvania, who was doing the same thing. It was the early 1900s and Oklahoma was the edge of the civilized West as well as the door to Texas and places further north along the cattle and trade routes to Montana. Along with Reuben’s brother, William “Ed” Schall, they settled on the Flathead Indian Reservation and traded horses with the Indians.  With the establishment of his horse trading business Montana became Ed Lane’s home.

The three men homesteaded and began to buy and trade horses with the Plains Salish people of the Flathead Reservation who were renowned for their horses. It was estimated at the turn of the 20th century that 1,500 Flathead Reservation Indians owned 45,000 horses. The three men sold about 9,000 reservation-bred horses a season to brokers who retailed them to stylish Atlantic seaboard families. “Horse care, horse racing and horse trading brought the white and the red men together,” said Stephen E. Ambrose (Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West).

Ed Lane and the Schall brothers would load up horses on the new Northern Pacific Railway line that ran from Arlee, Montana, south to Missoula, Montana. From there they rode in the boxcar with the horses to Pennsylvania. Once they arrived in Pittsburgh, they herded the horses into a temporary rope corral on a street downtown. There they used Ed’s entrepreneurial license to set up a temporary horse-selling business. Easterners fancied the prettily spotted horses for show animals and as gifts to their children.

Eventually Ed built his house, which still stands north of Arlee, but he did not settle down. He took on another partner, Grey Scott, and formed The Scott and Lane Wild West Show. Ed began raising exotic horses and using them in shows and parades. He was a good friend of the local Native American Indians and hired them to dress up in their finely beaded outfits and horse trappings. Together they went wherever a show or parade needed them. If there was a rodeo or parade or Wild West show in the 1920s and 1930s, from New York to Hollywood, Scott and Lane were there, showing off the old West the way it used to be: Native American Indians riding and dancing, Scott trick riding, and Ed bustin’ broncs.

It is not difficult to understand how a man such as Ed Lane put together a successful Wild West show. In 1898, the U.S. Army Cavalry was still at its peak: horses and riders perfectly matched. The volunteer conglomerate of the Rough Riders was ranchers, cowboys, adventurers from high society, veterans of the Civil and Indian wars, retired West Point graduates, ne’r-do-wells, miners, sheriffs and just about anyone in-between — over 100,000 in all. There was even a German band. The Rough Riders were tough, enterprising, resourceful survivalists, hardworking and patriotic. These qualities were always the draw to a Wild West show. The last night of the military gathering in Cuba before the men were disbanded, there was a “show” — a fine gathering of all the men. The music played, the Native Americans led with dancing, soldiers demonstrated bronc busting and the laying down of horses. Ed had just witnessed his first Wild West show.

The Nez Perce Indians of Idaho were famous for their spotted Appaloosa horses and were probably the source for Salish owned Appies. Ed owned three or four leopard-spotted Appaloosas; however, he mostly bred palominos. Sally Rand, the famous “fan dancer” of burlesque, rode one of Ed’s Appaloosa horses at the state Fair in Pueblo, Colorado, in 1942. His well-trained leopard Appaloosas, Trinidad and Peter Charlie, carried notables when the Scott and Lane Show paraded down city streets. He also owned a little horse of indeterminate breed that he taught to climb stairs inside buildings. Coming down, the horse had to be kept from falling so they put a small horse collar on him and attached ropes to it which two men held from behind to “brake” his descent. He also owned a horse named Hollywood, formerly owned by Hoot Gibson that danced sideways the whole length of the arena.

In 1928 Ed introduced “Push Ball” to the Missoula County Fair. Riding pinto/paints, Ed and three other riders pushed their horses into a giant leather ball used as training balls for football teams and the military. Made of leather the balls were as tall as a horse and scary to the animals. Two teams of two riders were skilled enough on horseback to force the horses to push this huge thing back and forth against a center mark.

Ed Lane lived and shared the cowboy way of life in a time that saw many social and technological changes that were contrary to that way of living. He died November 12, 1946, at the age of 79, and his final wish was that all his horses be set free in the brown foothills behind his house.

 

References:

Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.

Fahey, John. The Flathead Indians. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974.

Haines, Francis. Appaloosa the Spotted Horse in Art and History. Austin: University of Texas Press; published for the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX, 1972.

Ronan, Peter. Historical Sketch of Flathead Indian Nation. Minneapolis, MN: Ross and Haines, Inc., 1890.

Roosevelt, Theodore. The Rough Riders. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899; New York: Barleby.com, 1999.