All this time i thought he was wearing (a ripoff of the) Burger King crown because he likes to eat so much. And that he was just accepted to be weird (hence the name), so no one made any big deal over it.
Texas sawmill workers in 1910. Past the Winning of The West (& East Texas was never “The West.”) But it illustrates a selection of styles. Including a couple of Stetsons–or Stetson knockoffs.
Stetsons have been widely worn, in Texas & elsewhere, for longer than the brief period of The Frontier. Working men in Mexico like them; the ornate sombreros are for rich charros & mariachis. But we have other hat makers–would you like a “Gus” hat (from Lonesome Dove, of course)–or maybe a gambler hat–Wild Bill was a gambler. Or maybe you’d like to dress like a blues man–or want something to go with your zoot suit.
Sorry, I’ve descended to Hat Porn. Anything is better than those damn ball caps–worn backwards by guys who are old enough to know better…
I don’t have my National Geographic collection here, but there was an article (c. 2001) about ranch workers in Colorado which mentioned that there’s a variety of styles worn and that people from different areas will wear different ones. The pictures showed all kinds of hat styles; some of them depict what’s called a sombrero cordobés in Spanish, with a short cilindrical top and a flat round brim. I’ve been wondering whether that hat was a case of parallel evolution or the design actually reached Colorado from Cordoba ever since I saw the pic.
So you’re the one that saw the movie!
When I visited the dude ranch, I wore not only a ten-gallon hat, but a pair of ten-gallon pants.
That’s the style typically shown being worn by Spanish/Mexican gentlemen in California during the period of Spanish and Mexican rule. Most Americans will readily associate it with the fictional hero Zorro. I’d say it’s a good bet the design was brought from Spain.
The ammo was very unreliable, too. It was entirely possible that half the rounds in the cylinder would misfire.
I read in a Hickok bio that he would discharge his Navies in the morning and reload them each day to ensure that the rather hygroscopic black powder in the chamber was dry. Cap-and-ball firearms that were in wide use before 1873 were front-loaders. Powder was poured into the chamber, and a ball was seated on top of it. Lubricant was smeared over the opening to reduce fouling (black powder leaves a lot of residue), help prevent flash-overs, and to provide a barrier against moisture. Once the chamber was loaded, a percussion cap was put on the nipple at the rear.
Metallic cartridges existed before 1873, of course. The first successful one was the .22 BB Cap around 1845. My recollection is a little fuzzy here, but ISTR that Smith & Wesson had a patent on the ‘through’ cylinder (i.e., the chamber went all the way through the cylinder, rather than having a solid breach as in front-loaders) that didn’t expire until 1873. Many Colt 1851 and 1860s, as well as a plethora of other handguns were modified to use metallic cartridges. By this time I believe that metallic cartridges had achieved pretty solid reliability.
Not that that has anything to do with hats!
It does if we’re a-gonna shoot 'em off people’s heads, pardner!
I think Mythbusters busted that one. 
I saw it too.
Liked it.
Bought the DVD.
My first thought when I saw that was “riverboat gambler”, but that could be an impression I got from movies and TV. Maybe that’s a myth, too. 
I think of it as a ‘Plains’ style. (I don’t know if that’s an actual term.)
I have no proof, but logically, I would suspect that most cowboys wore what they could afford.
I think there is historical proof that the “boss of the plains” was popular, but a sombrero seems to me to be another good choice while working.
From a website for shooters: In Search of The Real Cowboy Hat.
Of course, the men who “won” the West were the dudes who founded towns, opened banks & got signatures on the dotted lines. Mostly, they wore bowlers. (Oh, and wouldn’t Planters hats be the choice of riverboat gamblers? Which they kept as they moved West.)
Of course, Stetsons are Cool,.
Yep, to my eye, the Planters hat looks close to Johnny L.A.'s hat (at least the pic he linked to that’s similar to his hat).
Or they wore one of these, which is the one I own. Works quite well outside a gambling hall, too.
Good article. Very informative. Thanks for that.
in the movie joe kidd , clint eastwood wore a derby in the beginning of the movie, then switched to a different type of cowboy hat when he left town to after being hired to track. I have a derby hat made by Stetson called a bat masterson.
What’s really is sad is when your Ten gallon hat is feelin’ five gallons flat.