Cowboys In The Wild West Didn’t Wear Cowboy Hats (2024)
Or Not
In today’s world many misconceptions have been perpetuated—becoming modern day “facts”—when, in reality, myths and hearsay have taken over. Sorry to burst your bubble, but in this weekly column, Ripley’s puts those delusions to the test, turning your world upside down, because you can’t always…Believe It!
Today: Did cowboy wear cowboy hats?
Cowboys are a symbol of the American Wild West, but there are some tales about them that aren’t true. They rarely fought Indians, they were more likely to die from falling off a horse than in a gunfight, and they didn’t wear those tall, wide-brimmed cowboy hats you see in Westerns.
The iconic Stetson came onto the market in 1865, and it wasn’t popular until the end of the 19th century. A cowboy’s preferred choice of hat? The derby—also known as the bowler. Photos of the Wild Bunch from 1892 and 1900 clearly show the gang—Harry A. Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid), Ben Kilpatrick (the Tall Texan), Robert Leroy Parker (Butch Cassidy), Harvey Logan (Kid Curry), and Will Carver—donning derby hats.
Left to right: Bat Masterson, Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok, and Jesse James.
Famous gunslinger and gambler Bat Masterson also favored the derby. The classic photo of American West gunfighter Billy the Kid depicts the outlaw wearing what resembles a top hat. Wild Bill Hickok was photographed in a flat, pancake hat. An 1882 photo of Jesse James shows the outlaw in a low-crowned cap with an upturned brim.
Men commonly wore hats on the American frontier, and derby hats were functional for various occasions. Most photographs from that time feature men wearing them and one of the reasons they were popular is because they stayed on in windy conditions.
Frontiersman typically wore hats related to their employment, and they were commonly made of beaver fur-felt and were natural in color. In addition to the derby, men wore flat wool caps, Mexican sombreros, or old Civil War hats (such as the kepi).
As for the ten-gallon hat, it would have been impractical, even if it was impressive to 20th-century moviegoers. Famous lawmen such as Wild Bill Hickok and Wyatt Earp wore low-crowned hats because giant cowboy hats would have made them easy targets for adversaries.
The ten-gallon hat got its name from the Spanish word “Galón,” not because it could hold 10 gallons of water. Galón means braid, and many Spanish hats in era had braids on them. One with 10 braids was called a Ten-Galón hat.
The original Stetson was dubbed “The Boss of the Plains,” and it didn’t resemble what we think of as a cowboy hat today. It featured a high crown and wide brim and looked a bit like an Amish hat. It was waterproof and shielded the wearer from elements such as the sun and rain. The hat’s design, which didn’t have a crease on the open crown, stayed the same for several years.
John Stetson’s classic cowboy hat was possibly inspired by the Spanish-derived hats he encountered after he moved to the West. He created the iconic headwear, which features a crease in the middle of a high crown with a dent on each side, allowing the wearer to remove it by the crown instead of the brim.
Legend is that he met a cowboy on the road, who was so impressed by the hat that he gave Stetson $5 for it (a rather large amount at that time). The rest is history. By the 1870s, cowboys took to customizing their hats, and in 1872, Montgomery Ward Catalog sold hats that allowed men to shape the crowns and brim to suit their preferences.
Cowboys didn't wear cowboy hats until almost 1900. Here is what they did wear. Bowler
Bowler
The bowler hat, also known as a billyco*ck, bob hat, bombín (Spanish) or derby (United States), is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown, originally created by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler in 1849. It has traditionally been worn with semi-formal and informal attire.
The working cowboy wore wide-brimmed and high-crowned hats. The hats were most likely adopted from civil war era slouch hats and may have been influenced by the Mexican Vaqueros before the invention of the modern design.
Men commonly wore hats on the American frontier, and Derby hats were functional for various occasions. Most photographs from that time feature men wearing them, and one of the reasons they were popular is because they stayed on in windy conditions.
The very earliest cowboy hat didn't show up until the 1860s (we'll get to that later), but we can trace the origin of the cowboy hat all the way back to the 13th century.
Historically, felt hats served more purposes than straw, at least for the old-school cowboys. It protected them from the sun during the day, and warmed them in the night, when desert temperatures dropped. A felt hat could even hold water for their thirsty horse, or adequately fan a campfire flame.
Although men on horseback have been wearing broad-brimmed hats as far back as the Mongolian horsem*n of the 13th century, John B.Stetson invented the modern-day American cowboy hat. Stetson's hat, nicknamed “Boss of the Plains," was first manufactured in 1865.
For herding cattle or sheep, they simply wore the hats they stepped off the boat wearing. The first cowboy hats were made of beaver, rabbit, or other fur, but felt soon became the preferred (and priciest) material.
With slight individual and regional differences, the basic Old West cowboy attire the wide-brimmed hat, an ordinary shirt worn beneath a cowboy vest and waistcoat, the cotton or wool trousers, covered halfway with the leather chaps, the distinct tall boots with spurs, and the oversized silk handkerchief worn around the ...
Over time, the cowboy hat underwent changes in shape to better suit the needs of its owner and evolved into the form we are more familiar with today. The brim curved up on the sides to stay out of the way of a rope, and the crown became pinched to allow better control.
Cowboy hats, with their functional design and sturdy construction, quickly gained popularity among farmers for their practicality in protecting against sun exposure and inclement weather.
A Stetson hat is the classic cowboy hat. This hat has a wide brim and a high crown. The crown is often creased, and the brim is often rolled, whether by the owner or the seller. Stetson hats generally have a similar structure but have a range of options that set them apart from one another.
The X's stand for the amount of beaver that is in a hat. The more beaver fur that's in the hat, the better a hat it is, and the more X's it is labeled with. One thing that many people don't realize is that there is actually no standard or rule when it comes to labeling the quality of a cowboy hat!
By today's standards, the hat was rather ordinary in design, with a round flat brim and smooth, rounded crown. Stetson made the hat out of fine fur from beaver, rabbit and other small animals to withstand the elements.
In the past, leather cowboy hats were often made from cowhide leather, but today leather cowboy hats can be made from all kinds of leathers and insulations. You can even get leather cowboy hats made from buffalo leather.
Sure, anyone can wear a cowboy hat. But since real cowboys are uncommon outside rural areas, city folk wear them for their rough and rugged style, rather than practicality. Western hats styles don't tend to impact etiquette much. Whether you're wearing a Gus or a cattleman crease, the same rules apply.
Introduction: My name is Aracelis Kilback, I am a nice, gentle, agreeable, joyous, attractive, combative, gifted person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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