Born November 24, 1915 to Christina and Edwin Earl “Cam” Camblin. The Camblins lived on a ranch near the Pumpkin Buttes. Earlie’s family’s ranch had cows, sheep, and a well known horse operation. Earlie was the oldest son and expected to be a hand from a very young age. He had seven siblings, six sisters and one younger brother. Earlie had a love for horses and the ranching life he was raised with. He helped his dad Cam Camblin with the horse operation from the time he was old enough to ride. He helped gather horses often.
One instance when he was 7 years old his dad sent him to Floyd Reno’s place headquarters where now present day is just south of Wright, WY, over 30 miles from the pumpkin buttes. His dad was confident in Earlie’s abilities that he sent him as a representative of the ranch to receive some horses that he knew would be coming in with a big horse gather that was going on in the thunder basin. Earlie’s job was to help sort out the quarter circle Y horses and trail them back to the home ranch at the buttes. Earlie left the buttes at 2am and rode over 30 miles to Reno’s headquarters where he waited until noon and they still hadn’t come in with the horses yet.. side note Earlie wasn’t afraid of horses or livestock but he was very shy around people at this early age, so when they called him to lunch he jumped down off the corral fence and he ran up a draw and hid in a washout. He watched until they all came back out from lunch and then he went back to the corral. They never showed up with the horses that day so he left at sundown he rode all the way back home to the buttes, getting there about 10pm that night. His mom fed him some supper and he slept until his dad woke him up again at 2am to send him back to Reno’s place. That day the horse gather showed up and he helped sort out over 40 head of horses that he then trailed home to the buttes by himself as a 7 year old.
At age 10 Earlie entered the Bronc Riding at 4th of July Rodeo at Savageton, WY and won it! He was the only cowboy to cover his horse!
Around the age of 12 Earlie was skilled enough with driving a team of horses that his dad sent him from the buttes down to get a load of coal with a wagon and a team from Plaster’s Coal Mine that was about 20 miles east of the buttes over by Greaswood Lake. It took about all day to get there so they loaded the wagon with coal that evening and as bashful as he was they made him spend the night. Early the next morning he hooked up the team that was really fresh and they were also a green team which made things even a little more difficult for Earlie because he wasn’t very big. When they started out to head home and the team being a little fresh, the trail went up a long sloping ridge and the team kept trying to go faster and faster with the result of the wagon bouncing and the load of coal getting lighter and lighter. Earlie was not very heavy but he was pulling as hard as he could and he finally got them shut down before they topped the ridge. He got the team settled and he headed on home but with a lot less coal than he started out with.
Earlie not only cowboyed for his dad but over the years as a teenager and young man he cowboyed for other big ranchers such as Hermon Warner on the Spear Head Ranch, Will Vonberg on the Dough Stick, Pax Irvine at the Flying Diamond, and John Pfister on the Pfister Ranch over by the north butte. These are just a few of the ranches he worked for off and on as he was still helping his dad with the ranch at home. He was breaking horses and punching cows.
Earlie and a good friend of his JT Strosser joined the army and they were placed in the 115th Horse Cavalry Division. He went from FT. Robinson Nebraska to Sheridan, WY and then ended up in Fort Lewis Washington where he was in charge of the remount horses. His duties included receiving the horses that came in that the army bought and breaking the horses that weren’t broke to ride yet. His unit patrolled the west coast horseback until mechanization occurred and then the army sent him to Louisiana where he was trained to operate sherman tanks. Earlie served in the Philippines and Japan. When he was discharged in January 1946 he came back home to the ranch at the Pumpkin Buttes and started ranching again with his dad.
On Dec. 6, 1946 he married Jean Paden from Midwest, WY. Then in 1948 him and his dad purchased the Markland Ranch where he and Jean lived for 56 years raising their family. They made a living raising cows, sheep, and horses. Earlie also continued to take in outside horses to break and train them. He also enjoyed rodeo. In his younger years he participated in calf roping, bronc riding, team roping, wild cow milking and his FAVORITE was wild horse racing! As he grew older he participated in team roping up until just a few years before he died. Earlie did his best to pass his knowledge of horses, livestock, and ranching to his children. His first love was always horses and his eldest son Tut shared this same passion. He continued to relay his wisdom of the things he had learned up until the last months of his life.
In the 1960’s Earlie purchased a stallion that packed the bloodlines from the well known King Ranch in Texas, King’s Imp. Who became the foundation sire for the registered quarter horses of the Camblin Ranch today.
Earlie was raised under the unwritten principles and laws of old school cowboying and horsemanship. He was respected by old and young alike. He never spoke ill of anyone and he was honest and very fair. If he didn’t have something good to say, he didn’t say anything at all.