Boss of the Plains facts for kids

Boss of the Plains hat

The Boss of the Plains was a special kind of hat. It was created in 1865 by John B. Stetson. He designed it for people living and working in the American West. This hat was meant to be strong, waterproof, and stylish. Over time, the name "Stetson" became very famous. It was almost like saying "cowboy hat" because many later cowboy hat styles were based on it.

How the Hat Was Designed

The Dodge City Peace Commission in 1883, some wearing a Boss of the Plains

The Boss of the Plains hat had a tall top. This helped keep the wearer's head warm or cool. It also had a wide, stiff brim. This brim protected the face, neck, and shoulders from the sun and rain. The first hats were made from fur-felt. This material made them waterproof, so rain would just roll off. The hat was also strong but light.

Inside the hat, there was a sweatband. This helped keep the hat clean and comfortable. There was also a small bow on the sweatband. This bow helped people tell the front of the hat from the back. The first hats were a natural color. They had four-inch tall tops and four-inch wide brims. A simple strap was used as the hat band.

John B. Stetson wanted his hats to be very waterproof. He decided to make them from beaver felt. It took about 42 beaver belly pelts to make one high-quality hat. There's a famous story about a cowboy. His water bottle leaked while he was crossing a dry area. He saved his drinking water by carrying it in his Stetson hat! Stetson even used ads showing a cowboy watering his horse using water from his hat. People could also use the brim to direct water to their mouths. A good quality hat was also a sign of importance in some places.

Making It Your Own: Customization

An Apache man wearing a "Boss of the Plains" Stetson

For about 20 years, the original Boss of the Plains hat was very popular. It had straight sides and a flat brim. Most old photos show the hat without any planned creases. People usually kept the top of the hat rounded.

However, people started changing their hats. They would dent the top or roll the brim. At first, this happened by accident. Later, people did it on purpose to make their hat unique. Sometimes, they would add decorations. These dents and brim shapes often showed where a person lived or worked. Sometimes, you could even tell which cowboy ranch someone was from just by their hat's crease!

Because of these changes, hat makers started creating new styles. One popular change was a long crease. It sloped from the back of the hat down to the front. This was called the "Carlsbad crease." It was named after a style used in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Another style came from the pointed top of the Mexican sombrero. This became known as the "Montana peak." It had four dents on top, made by handling the hat with four fingers.

How the Hat Became Famous

Movie star Tom Mix with a Stetson

Many entertainers helped make Stetson hats popular. These were people who promoted cowboy and western culture. Buffalo Bill had special hats made for his Wild West shows. These hats had very wide brims. Later, hats were designed for Hollywood movies. The "ten-gallon" hats worn by movie stars like Tom Mix in Western films became very famous.

Over time, the working cowboy hat became a key part of the cowboy image. This was thanks to ranch cowboys, entertainers, and rodeo competitors. Even politicians, celebrities, and police groups started wearing hats based on the Boss of the Plains. They wanted to show their connection to the values of the Old West. The modern cowboy hat still looks a lot like the first Boss of the Plains hat from 1865. This shows how well its original design worked!

Robert Baden-Powell learned about how useful the Boss of the Plains hat was. He met Frederick Russell Burnham during a war in Africa (the Second Matabele War of 1896–97). Baden-Powell then made the campaign hat popular. This hat had a flat brim with four dents on top. He used it during the Siege of Mafeking in the Second Anglo-Boer War. When Baden-Powell started the South African Constabulary in 1900, he chose the Boss of the Plains as their uniform hat.

A popular story says that when the first hats arrived from the Stetson company, the label said 'hats, B-P style'. People thought "B-P" meant Baden-Powell's initials. Later, Baden-Powell chose the campaign hat for the Boy Scouts.

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