Ern Pedler photograph collection, circa 1940-1988

Ernest "Ern" Joseph Pedler was born May 31, 1914 in Prospect, South Australia, Australia, the third child of William Joseph Pedler and Lily Violetta Cook. When he was between 2 and 3 years of age, the family emigrated from Australia to Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, after his parents were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He loved horses and began his career as a long-distance rider, cowboy, and horse wrangler at the age of sixteen. He rode horses in the Wasatch and Uintah Mountains and on the west desert of Utah, where he chased and caught wild horses, until that became illegal. Later in his life, he was able to live on a ranch in the Vernon area. Pedler was also a writer of fiction, writing about horses and the landscapes that surrounded him. In addition to numerous short stories, Pedler authored a novel, The Big Lonely Horse (1960), and two novellas: Trail to Freedom (1959) and Dust of the Home Corral (1961). Ern Pedler died on November 17, 1989.