John B. Stetson didn’t set out to shape the image of the American West. He left New Jersey for the frontier in search of clean air and a second chance after tuberculosis threatened to cut his life short. What he found was inspiration. Among miners, settlers, and ranch hands, Stetson noticed one problem again and again: no one had the right hat for the work they were doing.
So he built one. Wide-brimmed, high-crowned, and made of waterproof felt, the Boss of the Plains wasn’t meant to be stylish. It was built to last. Cowboys, lawmen, and cattle drivers quickly took to it, not because it looked good, but because it worked. The Stetson hat became a staple for legends like Buffalo Bill, Will Rogers, Annie Oakley, and Tom Mix, and soon, a symbol far beyond it.
As time passed, it became part of the uniform for movie cowboys like John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Clint Eastwood. Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Lyndon B. Johnson proudly posed in their own Stetsons, tying the hat to leadership as much as legend.
Our own Reagan Habeeb takes us back to the frontier to explore how one man’s design became the most iconic silhouette of the American cowboy.
