Leonard Eilers

Leonard John Eilers (June 23, 1898 – March 19, 1996), the "Preachin' Cowboy" or the "Christian Cowboy," was an American traveling storyteller, preacher, and short-lived actor and Hollywood cameraman who established the North Rim Ranch, also known as Eilers Ranch, in the San Fernando enclave of the San Fernando Valley in 1942. His camerawork included Victor Fleming's Abie's Irish Rose and Cecil B. DeMille's version of The Ten Commandments (1923).

Early life Eilers was born in Dodge, Nebraska and was nine months old when his father died.

Eilers eventually soured on the lifestyle demanded of movie business participants, turning to a synthesis of his passion for his skills as a cowboy and his devotion to Christianity to make his living. and foster children. He also began touring the United States and Europe with his rope tricks, stories, music, and slide shows which "emphasized a Western context with titles such as 'God and the Rancher,' 'Trouble on the Range,' and 'Brand Inspection.'" His "happy, helpful, wholesome" or getting "into the saddle for God." Fullerton's First Baptist Church, Los Angeles's Atwater Park Baptist Church, Oxnard's Presbyterian Church, Bingen, Washington's Youth For Christ, Condon Baptist Church in Heppner, Oregon, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Nampa, Idaho. In the first weeks of March 1942, he conducted 15+ series of speaking engagements alone, and had completed short engagements ministering over the radio and in elementary and high schools in ten Western states. In total, the couple estimated that they had provided temporary housing to some 500 youth over the decades. In 1946, Eilers began hosting a worship group at his Granada Hills home which led to the establishment of the First Presbyterian Church of Granada Hills.

Into his 80s, Eilers continued his rope tricks, storytelling, and evangelizing. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Chatsworth, California.