The advent of cowboy boots
Imagine shoes with out a left and an ideal. There is the right time when ready-made shoes needed to be broken in to fit. Only custom-made boots and shoes had a left and a right. There were two varieties of boots worn on the first frontier basically. One was Hessian boots, put on by the German mercenaries who fought for the English through the Revolutionary War. Hessian shoes arrived below the knee and got a big v-cut top with an ornamental tassel. Wellingtons were the additional style, made popular after 1815 when the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellingtons acquired a stacked leather heel, square or round toes, and were cut straight or curved just underneath the knee slightly. Both types influenced cowboy footwear later. These early boots had natural leather soles that tended to slide. Nails positioned in patterns on the soles helped supply the boot styles better traction. Hobnail shoes were rough on wooden flooring, and this explains why saloon floors were in rough shape notoriously.
The Hyer Boot Organization in Olathe, Kan., made the first couple of cowboy boots in 1875 supposedly. A cowboy who was simply wearing frontier shoes or boots had returned from an extended cattle drive just. He asked Hyer for a custom made pair of boots with a pointed toe that would easily put on a stirrup, a slanted back heel that could stay put and a higher top with a v-slice scallop in the front and back for comfort and ease. They caught on and others started to make them immediately. In 1903, Hyer’s added ornamental toe stitching, or toe lines and wrinkles, as the ultimate flourish. Montana cowboys, and cowgirls, today wear these same boots.
Ellen Baumler can be an award-successful author and the interpretive historian at the Montana Historical Culture.
The Hyer Boot Organization in Olathe, Kan., made the first couple of cowboy boots in 1875 supposedly. A cowboy who was simply wearing frontier shoes or boots had returned from an extended cattle drive just. He asked Hyer for a custom made pair of boots with a pointed toe that would easily put on a stirrup, a slanted back heel that could stay put and a higher top with a v-slice scallop in the front and back for comfort and ease. They caught on and others started to make them immediately. In 1903, Hyer’s added ornamental toe stitching, or toe lines and wrinkles, as the ultimate flourish. Montana cowboys, and cowgirls, today wear these same boots.
Ellen Baumler can be an award-successful author and the interpretive historian at the Montana Historical Culture.