BELFIELD — Are you familiar with Tom Mix? He was the first real famous cowboy film hero, long before Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and John Wayne made their marks in Hollywood.
From about 1910 to 1928, he was as famous as a Hollywood star could be, in silent films, and then when “talkies” became popular, he was one of their casualties.
Before all of that, he worked on ranches in southwestern North Dakota and, according to George Wolf, a longtime Badlands rancher who now lives just south of Medora, he married his second wife Olive just outside of Medora, at what was then a dude ranch called The Buddy Ranch.
“The justice of the peace who married Tom and Olive was my great-grandfather, Nels Nichols,” said Pam Reinarts, who now owns Cedar Canyon Spa in Medora.
After that Mix was in a series of wild west shows, such as The Miller Brother Wild West Show, from 1906-1909, the Seattle Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition, with his wife Olive, the Widerman Show out of Amarillo, Texas, and Will A. Dickey’s Circle D Ranch Show.
It was the latter show that supplied Selig Pictures in Hollywood with cowboys and Indians for movies and, in 1910, Mix was hired by Selig to provide and handle horses.
Apparently Selig saw some potential in Mix and cast him in his first movie, Ranch Life in the Great Southwest, in 1910. He continued with Selig until 1917, writing and directing as well as acting.
Mix was then signed by Fox Films in 1917 and remained with them until 1928, averaging five or so films a year and that’s when his popularity soared and he earned and spent millions.
Mix was born in Mix Run, Pa., on Jan. 6, 1880 to Edwin and Elizabeth Mix, who named him Thomas Hezikiah Mix.
He enlisted in the Army in 1898, as Thomas E. Mix, and then deserted the army to marry his first wife, Grace Allin. The fact that he was a deserter did not come up until after his death, by which time he was so famous that the army had to hold its tongue and give him a full military burial.
Once, after his Hollywood fame had begun to dissipate, he was asked by a journalist what he thought of John Wayne and he said, “The only Christian words I can use are “no-talent upstart.”
As it turns out, Wayne had disliked Mix since Wayne’s college days at the University of Southern California, when Mix told several members of the football team, of which Wayne was a member, to stop by Fox Studios and he would find them jobs in the movies.
Wayne and several others did so a few weeks later, only to be informed that Mix had never told anyone at the studio about his promises of employment. They were thrown off the lot and Wayne never forgave Mix for that.
On Oct. 12, 1940, while driving his 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton through the Arizona desert, Mix swerved to avoid a washed out bridge. Workers said his excessive speed caused him, to then, lose control and roll over into the wash. An aluminum suitcase full of money and jewels struck him in the back of the head, killing him instantly, in what is now named Tom Mix Wash.
That car was recently restored in Arizona, and Ken Howie, of Ken Howie Studios in Belfield, the producer of the TV series, “Special Cowboy Moments,” for NBC North Dakota, was asked to photograph it for an elegant coffee table book.
“It’s an elegant, fast car,” said Howie, “featuring a supercharged V8 with a lot of Tom Mix style additions, like the custom six-shooter holstered under the steering column.”
Howie, who grew up on a ranch south of Belfield and graduated from Belfield High School, has worked as a photographer and videographer in Chicago, New York and more recently, Phoenix. He and his wife Theresa moved back to Belfield a few years ago to produce documentaries and preserve North Dakota’s rich history.
“Our history is made up of priceless stories that are fleeting,” says Ken. “We want to preserve what we still can.”