BEN C. BARTO
President and Founder of Horns for Heroes
Self-Taught Artist and Businessman
Ben was born in Rock Springs Wyoming on Sept. 8, 1952. When he was 6 years old his father had him selling vegetable and flower seeds from the back of comic books and at age 10 was paperboy of the month. He attended grade school at Saint Cyril & Methodius Catholic school and was an altar boy. In high school he worked as a short order cook at the local A&W restaurant and managed a Taco Johns restaurant his senior year. Ben graduated High school in 1971 and excelled in football but had a passion for water skiing and motorcycles.
In 1974 he was hired by Pacific Power and light as a materials inspector on the 500KV power transmission line from Jim Bridger power plant to Medford Oregon until completion 6yrs. later. Also, during that period he was interested in hand carving in elk and moose antler and even buying antler part time. 1980-81 he turned professional slalom and barefoot skier which was short lived but still to this day slalom and barefoot ski.
1982 Ben purchased a hand crafted in resin and hand painted wildlife hat pin business from Brent Barret (wildlife artist) consisting of 28 original pieces and Ben carved an additional 50 pcs and had 11 sub-contractors molding and painting products. Then started wholesaling his pins to Cabela’s and stepped up the antler buying and custom carving antler business as well.
He moved to Dubois in 1991 and purchased the Red Rock Lodge ( Bar, Restaurant, Motel). Became President of the Dubois Chamber of Commerce and sat on the Dubois Medical Board. In the course of the next 15 years he made a few bad mistakes which he regrets but they were lessons learned in life. In 1995 he started having concerts with Steppenwolf, Nazareth, Ozark Mtn Daredevils, Gary Allen and Mark Chestnut.
In 1998 he had his first intelligent life altering moment. On a sales trip through Utah, he met Sherry Moser and within a year convinced her to Marry him and move to Dubois. Sherry is also an artist and after a few years they decided to close the bar, enlarge their pins into magnets, and Christmas ornaments and have them produced in China. Ben then sculpted a series of Wine bottle holders, Christmas tree toppers and designed an antler Christmas tree that he patented. Enlarging their wildlife opened a whole new life for them as then they were producing products for not only Cabela’s but Bass Pro Shops, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Gander Mountain, Ace Hardware and hundreds of gift shops. In 2000 they had a couple of Dubois high school students by the name of Kelly and Chance Phelps hand painting their wildlife hat pins. After 9-11 both decided to follow in their father’s (John Phelps) footsteps and join the military. Kelly became Petty Officer 2ndClass and Lance Corporal Chance Phelps was killed in action in Iraq April 9th, 2004. Shortly after HBO made a movie called Taking Chance starring Kevin Bacon which won a Golden Globe Award. Chance’s Mother Gretchen Mack started the Chance Phelps Foundation which they fully support and help in fundraising. Ben and Sherry made custom hat pins for the Doolittle Raiders in 2002 for their 60threunion and received four thank you letters from the remaining 12 raiders. One was from Dick Cole who is now the last remaining survivor at age 103 and had the honor to meet him this year and receive a Doolittle Challenge coin from him along with a photo. They have also had the honor of building a knife for Samuel T. Holiday one of only two remaining Navajo WWII code talkers that he just died on 6-14 of this year. That knife was commissioned by and donated to the American Legion Archie Hay Post 24 in Rock Springs, Wyoming.
At the request of numerous friends and a family member in 2013 Ben became a Minister in the Universal Life Church Monastery and have had the pleasure of performing several Wedding Ceremonies and thus far no divorces.
2014 Ben had his second life altering moment when he saw Dana Bowman (the first double amputee to ever re-enlist back into the military ) sky dive with a 75’ American Flag into a field for a Green Beret event (see Dana’s brochure). They quickly became friends, and he has had Dana sky dive with the flag into the rodeo grounds 5 times at the Beartooth Rally in Red Lodge Montana. Some of you Legion Riders are familiar with the famous Bone Daddy Logo and have seen Bone Daddy in full costume at the rodeo having his photo taken. Ben is the man in the costume. Dana is the founder of the Halo for Freedom Warrior Foundation and is now also one of Horns for Heroes board of Directors. Dana invited Ben to one of his yearly events in Texas where he brings a couple of dozen wounded warriors in for a weekend of shooting games, Helicopter hog hunting, and a big fundraiser dinner and auction. Because of Ben’s affiliation with John and Chance Phelps along with the Halo for Freedom Warrior Foundation and other Veterans over the years and hearing their stories along with discovering 23 Veterans commit suicide every day he knew he needed to figure out a way to help. 2016 he started the Horns for Heroes Foundation. Most military personal and their friends are also hunters thus have antler stored somewhere that are worth up to $20.00 per lb. Our effort is to gather and purchase antlers to financially help Veterans in their hometowns and hire and train Veterans to build antler products.
Ben’s father was in the Airforce in WWII and a football injury his senior year kept him from being drafted in the Vietnam War. Sherry’s father was also Airforce in WWII and has 2 brothers that served in the Navy. As a Son of a Vet, he joined the Legion 4 years ago and then became a Legion Rider. Over the past 4 years Ben and Sherry have donated hundreds of knives and thousands of Dollars to Veteran and other personal causes and developed a line of fundraiser products for all Legions and VFW’s.
They have just received their 501-C3 tax exempt status from the IRS and our exempt employer identification number is 81-3920389.
