By the end of the interview with Tom Harrower, it was so clear that the brief duration of the plastic saddle in Western American life was so much more than just an attempt to create an alternative to leather. While, in the end, cowboys didn't like them, yet the silver screen embraced them, their creation alone was a testament to the tenacity and bold thinking that has been inherent in Western America for over 200 years.

The concept of the plastic saddle was a purely "out-of-the-box" idea in the early 1940s by William Vandergrift, founder of All Western Plastics Co. in Lusk, WY. It was an idea that was a gut reaction to solving the post World War II reality that there were no raw materials, particularly the leather needed to make saddles that were still in demand. B F Goodrich had just developed an artificial material called plastic and Vandergrift was one of the first buyers of these new sheets. Together with Tommy Neilson and master saddle maker Bernard Thon, they set out to solve the saddle shortage problem through typical Western ingenuity. In the end, only 65 plastic saddles were ever produced, each one created exactly in the same manner as leather saddles. The only difference being heat was used to stretch and secure them instead of water and thread.

Tom Harrower, lifelong Wyoming rancher and cowboy himself, has been an avid collector of cowboy and Western history. Back in about 1982 he recalls, "I was at the Loveland Show and saw this bushel basket full of plastic bridles. I'd never seen anything like these before. I ended up buying the whole bushel for about $15 and there started my fascination with this world of plastic cowboy gear." Now Tom, being the avid history buff, began to research and learn more about this new form to discover the fairly elusive world of the plastic saddle. As time went on and he learned more about William Vandergrift, All Western Plastics, believing that the story behind this brief yet rich part of Western American history needed to be preserved and told.

Tom bought his first plastic saddle in 1998 and has been on the hunt ever since. Of the 65 made, he knows where 47 of them are. "What is so fascinating is that each saddle has a unique story behind it, where it was used, who owned it then and who owns it now." He further comments that, "Real cowboys didn't like them - they preferred the leather. And, as this was early technology in man-made materials, not nearly as advanced as the plastics of today, they stretched too much in the heat and hardened like a rock in the cold so there were some functional problems. They also cost almost 4 times as much as a new leather saddle if you could find one. A price list I saw from 1947 listed one at $549. That was a lot of money in that day for a saddle."

Of the 65 that were ever produced, all 65 were sold, many bought by Hollywood stars including the famous plastic parade saddles of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (Roy's beautiful example now lives in the Autry National Center in Los Angeles).

Now Tom is writing a book, the first book ever written on plastic saddles and their history. He has had some challenges, the biggest ones being finding the remaining 18 still out there and getting more information on William Vandergrift.

High Noon would like to help Tom finish this important project. As we all know, it's preserving all facets of the legacy of the great American West for future generations that is so important. If anyone has any information that would help Tom Harrower fill in these blanks, we encourage you to share.

This is his passion - to preserve this legacy and to ensure this brief yet far-thinking part of cowboy life doesn't get lost.

As a note at the end, he did admit that while he has logged thousands and thousands of miles on horseback, he's never ridden on a plastic saddle. But he owns several and I'm sure one day he finally will.

If you know anything, give him a call. He's pure gentleman and his passion for the plastic is infectious.

Tom Harrower
(307) 432-0404

             

Born a cowboy in waiting, Frank James Cooper first saw daylight on May 7, 1901, in Helena, Montana. His parents, Charles and Alice Cooper, emigrants from Great Britain, purchased the 7 Bar 9 cattle ranch. Frank Cooper went on to become a successful attorney and later a Montana Supreme Court jurist.  In 1910, Alice Cooper, wanting her sons to receive a better education than that offered at the time in Montana, took Frank and his older brother Arthur, to her native England where they attended Dunstable Grammar School in Bedfordshire. With war looming in Europe, they returned to Montana two years later.