Mix, Tom

Married in Yuma

Died outside Florence

Tom Mix in 1925.

A 1937 Cord like the one Tom Mix drove to his death on display at Don Laughlin's Riverside Casino in Laughlin, Nevada.   9-05.

The inscription reads, "In memory of Tom Mix whose spirit left his body on this spot.  And whose characterization and portrayals in life served to better fix memories of the old west in the minds of living men."   5-01.

(Thomas E. Mix, 1880.01.06-1940.10.11)  Actor, rodeo and circus performer.

Tom Mix was a huge star of silent movie Westerns.  He appeared in 336 feature films, directing 117 of them.  For filming many of  his movies he returned to the Prescott area where had won the National Rodeo Championship at the Frontier Days Rodeo in 1909.  After the advent of talking movies, he appeared in only nine features, and he moved on to appearances in rodeos and circuses. Mix was a pioneer of the action movie, keeping himself in top physical condition and performing his own dare-devil stunts.

In 1932, Tom Mix married his fifth wife, aerial performer Mabel Ward, at Lutes' Gretna Green Wedding Chapel in Yuma.  The two met while Mix was touring with the Sells-Floto Circus.

Mix drove his 1937 Cord single seat roadster with the same daring that marked the rest of his life.  Ignoring warnings that a bridge was out over a dry wash, he sped down Highway 79 between Florence and Tucson.  17 miles south of Florence his roadster plunged into what is now named the Tom Mix Wash.  A suitcase flew from its perch on the rear shelf of the roadster, and smashed the actor's head in.

A monument and ramada mark the spot of Tom Mix's fateful plunge on Highway 79.  Those so inclined can view the suitcase that killed him at the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, Oklahoma, or his boyhood outhouse at The Tom Mix Comes Home Museum outside of Driftwood, Pennsylvania.