Cowboy Hats & Stetsons: Iconic Western Headwear Since 1865

The Cowboy Hat, Stetson, 10 Gallon Hat, Ranch Hat, Pioneers Hat, Cattleman or Boss of the Plains, is a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat best known as the defining piece of attire for the North American Cowboy. Today it is worn by many people, and is particularly associated with Ranch workers in the western and southern United States, western Canada and northern Mexico, with Country and Western singers, and for participants in the North American Rodeo circuit. It is recognized around the world as part of Old West lore. It is an item of apparel that can be worn in any corner of the world, and receive immediate recognition as part of North American cowboy culture.

The first western model was the open crowned "Boss of the Plains" and after that came the front creased Carlsbad, destined to become “the” cowboy style. The high crowned, wide brimmed, soft felt western hats that followed are intimately associated with the cowboy image.

Design

Modern cowboy hats are made of fur-based felt, straw or, less often, leather. They are sold with a tall, rounded crown and a wide flat brim. Often the crown is pinched at the front and grooved down the centre of the crown. They have a simple sweatband on the inside to stabilize the fit of the head, and usually a small decorative hat band on the outside of the crown. In some places, "stampede strings" or "wind strings" are also attached. Hats can be manufactured in virtually any color, but are most often seen in shades of beige, brown and black.

Today's cowboy hat has remained basically unchanged in construction and design since the first one was created in 1865, by J.B. Stetson, and Stetson is often the name given to the hat, so synonymous are they with the company.  The Cowboy Hat quickly helped Stetson become the largest hat producer in the world, which it still is today.

Ornamentation, such as bows or buckles, were attached on the left side. This had a practical purpose, because the majority of people are generally right-handed, in the absence of a wide brim, bows or feathers on the right side of headwear could have interfered with the use of Weapons. 

The Boss of the plains design influenced various wide-brimmed hats worn by farmers and Stockmen all over the United States. Later designs were customised for law enforcement, military and motion pictures.

Creases in cowboy hats are used to give hats individual character and identify a certain group. A very popular crease used on modern cowboy hats is the Cattlemen. It is creased right down the center of the crown with a dent on each side. Returning in popularity is the Carlsbad crease, now sometimes called a "Gus crease" after a character in Lonesome Dove. It maintains a high crown at the back with the crease sloping steeply toward the front. The rodeo crease, the bull rider's crease (Formerly called the RCA crease, for the Professional Rodea Cowboy’s Association), the quarter horse crease, and the “tycoon," with a pinched front, are also seen today.

Background

Cowboy hats go back, almost to the inception of the cowboy. However, It is not clear when the Cowboy Hat began to be named as such. Westerners originally had no standard headwear. People moving west wore many styles of hat, including Top Hats, Bowler Hats (Derby Hats or “Derbies”) and Homburg style hats, remains of Civil War headgear, Mariner Caps and everything else. The working cowboy wore wide-brimmed, high-crowned hats long before the invention of the modern design. However, credit for "invention" of the cowboy hat as it is known today is generally given to John Batterson Stetson.

The original "Boss of the plains," manufactured by Stetson in 1865, was flat-brimmed, had a straight sided crown, with rounded corners. These light-weight, waterproof hats, were natural in color, with four inch crowns and brims. A plain hatband was fitted to adjust head size. The sweatband bore Stetson’s name. The Cowboy Hat has remained the universal image of the American West.

Inside the cowboy hat is a memorial bow to past hatters, who developed brain damage from treating felt with toxic mercury (which gave rise to the expression "Mad as a Hatter"). Their bodies absorbed mercury, and after several years of making hats, the hatters developed violent and uncontrollable muscle twitching. The ignorance of the times caused people to attribute these strange gyrations to madness, not mercury.

"Ten Gallon" Hat

Some cowboy hats have been called "ten gallon" hats. The term came into use about 1925. There are multiple theories for how the concept arose.

One possibility is that the tight weave of most Stetsons hats made them sufficiently waterproof to be used as a bucket. Early print advertising by Stetson showed a cowboy giving his horse a drink of water from a hat. The Stetson company notes that a "ten gallon" hat only holds 3 quarts.

Another theory is that the term "ten gallon" is possibly a corruption of the Spanish term galón, or galloon, a type of narrow braided trimming around the crown of a Sombrero, possibly a style adapted by the Vaqueros.

So, the term "ten-gallon" did not originally refer to the holding capacity of the hat, but to the width of a Sombrero hatband. When Texas cowboys misunderstood the word galón for gallon, the popular, though incorrect, legend may have been born.