Son of naval commander Harry Ross Hubbard and Ledora May Hubbard, L. Ron Hubbard was born on March 13, 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska. At the age of two, he and his family took up residence on a ranch outside Kalispell, Montana, and from there moved to the state’s capital, Helena.

As a young boy he learned much about survival in the rugged Far West–with what he called “its do-and-dare attitudes, its wry humor, cowboy pranks, and make-nothing of the worst and most dangerous.” Not only could he ride horses at the age of three and a half, but was soon able to rope and break broncos with the best of them.