Ask almost anyone in the world what a cowboy wears and the first thing that person will say is a cowboy hat. The cowboy hat is an iconic symbol of the Old West where men rode horses, corralled cows, wore six-shooters and practiced their quick draw.

But where did this symbol of a western frontier come from?

The cowboy hat's history is both simple and interesting. It is also the story of a certain man. Think for a moment, can you guess the last name of this man?

If you guessed Stetson, you were right on the money. John B. Stetson was the son of a Philadelphia hat maker. Due to illness, Stetson headed west with some friends to find a warm, dry climate. This was a common approach to curing illness that many thought came about because of city air.

In any case, one day in 1862, when he and his friends were out, John Stetson began to work with one of the animal hides he had gathered.

Stetson used his hands to work the fur, in much the same way that people knead bread dough. He dipped the fur in boiling water for a time, then kneaded it again, repeating the process several times. After doing this a few times, he spread out the worked hide. It had become felt, which is a smooth piece of animal fur. You can see felt in a wide variety of textiles and products today.

He then used the boiling water to soften the felt. Next, he shaped the piece into a hat, letting it dry and harden. The hat had an unusually tall middle section, or crown, and a very wide brim that was nearly a circle.

At first, Stetson wore the hat to amuse his friends, but he soon found he enjoyed the protection the hat gave him. It blocked both sun and precipitation, making it easier for him to see across the plains he worked on. Later, at the top of Pike's Peak, another man saw the hat and bought it from Stetson for a five dollar gold piece. Soon after returning home, Stetson was manufacturing and selling his hat in vast quantities.

The first Stetson hat was nicknamed The Boss of the Plains and quickly spread throughout the western frontier. Cowboys took to shaping their hats in different ways in order to identify which region they came from. Some men sought hats of special colors and shapes, but the basic cowboy hat had been born and an American icon had come to life.

Learn more about this author, Jared Garrett.
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