by Crystal Sparks

Created on: March 25, 2009   Last Updated: March 27, 2009

In 1865, with a small, rented room and $100, John B. Stetson purchased the tools he would need to become the legacy he is today. $10 worth of fur and a few hours of hard work and the John B.Stetson Hat Company was born. The Stetson Hat Company was created in 1865 when John B. Stetson decided to change the look of a simple Sombrero he had made for himself. He then mass-produced the hat and called it a "Cowboy" hat. He was Trained by his father, a master hatter who was seen as unreliable and lazy for his job which, at the time, was not held in high regard. John B. Stetson applied his skills and knowledge to make his business as successful as possible, with it later becoming a well-known, househould name!

A mere sixty-four years after John B. Stetson passed away, The John B. Stetson Hat Company ceased manufacturing in 1970 and is now called Hatco Inc. Though this change occurred, Stetson hats are produced in Stetson's sub-company called The Stetson Hat Co. located in St. Louis, Missouri, which is now located in St. Joseph, Missouri with its second location in Galveston, Texas where there are over 100 different styles of hats created for both men and women.

Becoming a symbol of Western pride, the cowboy hat has made it's way onto the heads of many of America's greatest country-men such as John Wayne, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Annie Oakley, Ronald Regan and Larry Hagman who wore his Stetson hat in the popular western show "Dallas" in which he play J.R. Ewing. The hat J.R., (Hagman), wore in the show is now a part of the Contemporary Americana exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Felt is the primary component in making a Stetson cowboy hat, with water being an important part of the felting process. The felt, fashioned from a variety of fur such as beaver, rabbit, and wild hare fur, can be dyed different colors or remain the color of the fur itself. Powder is used to soften the felt and leather to form the interior sweatband of the hat. Glue may be required to attach the sweatband and two-ply or two-cord band is used to create ribbon that encircles the outside of the crown where it meets the brim, and thread is used to stitch the ribbon, then small metal eyelets are used to venting. An appropriately sized wooden block is pressed inside the hat for shaping and, voila! You have a Stetson hat that is a perfect fit for any Western Cowboy!

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