subject: Golden Age Trivia: Cowboys-the Boots Make The Man [print this page] One of the most popular categories in pulp fiction was the western. The cowboy led a tough life, living in the open much of the time as he tended cattle or herded them to market, and even if he bunked at the ranch cowtowns were still sometimes the sites of bank robberies, shootouts, stagecoach robberies, and all manner of tumult. Pulp writers knew this and capitalized on it for all they were worth, introducing millions of readers to a land that was filled with excitement, danger, adventure and independence.
Still, there was one thing just about all cowboys had in common: they all wore boots. And it was seldom that the pulp writer focused on those footware essentials of cowboy life, although the cowboy's boots could make the difference between life and death.
If there's a single image that can conjure up the Old West, it's probably the cowboy boot, with its characteristic curved top, pointed toe and embroidered, often colorful, shafts. Just as the cowboy evolved to cope with the hardships of tending cattle on the plains of the Old West, so did his boot evolve to help him do a job that was difficult at best and often dangerous-and, eventually, to express his personality as well.
Boots came to the US via the cavaliers who left England to settle in the southeast during the time of Cromwell. The boots the cavaliers wore were thigh-high, and high-heeled as well-since the heels helped to keep the foot from sliding through the stirrup and getting caught. Since one had to have money to keep a horse, and those who rode were generally of a higher station than those who traveled by shank's mare (on foot), the heels on boots gave rise to the expression "well-heeled" for those who had plenty of money.
Well-heeled or not, the descendants of the aristocrats who settled the American South eventually traveled west after the Civil War, either looking for new opportunities or hoping to leave behind the destruction of years of strife. So did lots of former cavalry officers-who of course brought their boots with them.
The shorter boots worn by cavalrymen-no longer thigh-high, as the cavalier boots had been, but calf-high-were patterned after the Wellington boot, which had gained in popularity after Wellington defeated Napoleon. Ironically, however, by the time the Wellington was de rigeur in the US, Europe had left it behind in favor of Hessian boots-tall, stovepipe-style boots of gleaming leather.
Cavalry boots, while suited for riding, were not as well adapted to riding herd on cattle or chasing them through brush and across streams. As more and more men began to follow the trails, tending cattle on the range or driving them long distances to market, they began to look for different traits in their boots. This set of changes was accelerated by the poor quality of many of the boots that had been made for soldiers during the Civil War. (The term "shoddy" originated then, too, from a cheap wool cloth made from the sweepings and waste in fabric mills; garments and blankets made from shoddy often fell apart at the first sign of moisture, and gave rise to the derogatory term that expanded to cover any kind of merchandise that was of poor quality-including boots.)
Cowboys went to bootmakers and asked for those high heels to be made underslung-that way they would not only keep the foot from getting caught in the stirrup, the cowboy could dig in his heels when on foot dealing with a stubborn horse or steer. Then cowboys wanted more pointed toes, to make it easier to get the foot into the stirrup in the first place; and sturdy leather shafts that would protect their legs from rubbing against stirrups and stirrup leathers on the inside and brush and thorny undergrowth on the outside. Those shafts had to be loose enough, too, to allow the cowboy to extricate his foot from the boot should it become hung up in a stirrup-lest he be dragged either to serious injury or death.
Meanwhile, when first purchased, the fit of the boot from foot to ankle had to be tight so that the cowboy wouldn't get blisters or twist an ankle when on foot. That gave rise to the mule ears that were used to pull the boots on. (The boots would, of course, give a bit with wear, so that they fit comfortably when broken in.)
Gradually stitching was added, at first for practical reasons; it kept the leather from sagging and forming folds that would end up rubbing against the leg. Then it became more ornamental, as different colors were used to embroider fancy patterns. Soon inlays and overlays in colorful shapes and designs followed, and before long the design on the shaft of a cowboy boot was limited only to the imagination of the bootmaker and the price the cowboy had in his pocket. Thus, what we know today as the cowboy boot took shape-a type of boot known variously as the Hollywood or tejas-style boot, with designs that range from flame-bright embroidery to stars, teardrops, eagles, and a host of other shapes.
