Esley Thornton

Pre-1970s Rodeo

Inducted 2025

Esley was born to Guy Fox and Grace Parshall Fox at their family home near Shell Creek Oct. 23, 1934. He was the third oldest of 15 siblings.

Esley went to school at Elbowoods High School, where he was a member of the last graduating class in 1953.
Upon graduating from high school, Esley served in Korea after the Korean War in cryptographic repair and had top secret clearance.
Esley married Audrey Hall in 1955.

After his service, he went back to college at Dickinson State Teacher’s College, where he was part of the first rodeo team in the college’s history. In 1958, the team he was on won the Rocky Mountain Regional Championship. That team consisted of Esley, Dale Little Soldier, Angus Fox, Dale Jorgenson, Tex Appledorn and Pete Fredericks.

Esley received an honorable discharge March 9, 1962.

Esley married Nylene Foss in Hazen, Feb. 18, 1978.

Esley continued his distinguished career with the BIA for 34 years, working on the Fort Berthold and Fort Totten Reservations before he ended his career as a civil roads engineer in the Aberdeen Area Office in Quality Control, retiring in 1989.

In his retirement, Esley was commissioned by the Three Affiliated Tribes to draw pictures of tribal council members from previous administrations. Esley was instrumental in securing pictures from families, giving the tribe the most complete and accurate pictorial for history purposes.

In his later years, one of Esley’s devotions was telling the story of Sakakawea as told to him by his grandmother, Ruby Parshall, which detailed how Sakakawea was Hidatsa, not Shoshone.

Esley is probably most well known for his long and distinguished rodeo career. He won the saddle bronc title at the first organized North Dakota State High School rodeo in 1953. His career in rodeo continued where he won NDRA championships in saddle bronc in 1963 and 1966 and a team roping championship in 1979.

After retiring from active rodeoing, Esley judged numerous rodeos including the NDRA Finals in Minot, as well as North Dakota High School finals and college rodeos.

In addition to his rodeo career, Esley prided himself on the horses he trained. He was precise in is horse training and was meticulous in his methods, being satisfied only when “that horse could turn on a dime and give you change.