World Champion bull rider Lane Frost lost his life at age 25 competing in the 1989 Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo. As a former bull rider, I wanted to honor this great young man who paid the ultimate price doing what he had a passion and love for, so I decided to commission myself as the artist. Champion Lane Frost is always going to be one of my favorite sculptures because of all of the difficulties and challenges it took to complete it. Every time I started feeling good about the project, something would come along and knock me on my ass. Right out of the gate, the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo Committee turned me down, saying I would have to raise all of the funds on my own. My father suffered a stroke just as I was starting the monument. He died on Nov. 8, 1992. When I was nearly finished with the clay original, it burned up in a fire at Caleco Foundry in Cody, Wyoming, on March 6, 1993. I was living in the foundry when an electric heater warming the clay shorted out and started a fire in the building. I awoke at 3 a.m. to find my room filled with smoke and called 911 before jumping out of the second story window. The volunteer fire department arrived and extinguished the fire, but not before the surface of the clay sculpture and most of my tools had been destroyed.. I ordered new tools and clay that very day and began working long hours to repair the damage. I was able to finish the monument and delivered it just days before the dedication on July 26, 1993. This was my first large public monument and it will always have a special place in my heart. Champion Lane Frost is located at Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Through its simple truth, the following quote by Lane touches my heart and gives me strength. ''Don't be afraid to go after what you want to do and what you want to be. But don't be afraid to be willing to pay the price.'' ̶ Lane Frost
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