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DALLAS, Jul 7, 2003/ FW/ --- To trace the history of the cowboy boots, is to trace the history of bootmaking itself, and look at a slice of American history.

Historical records show that shoemaking as an art started 3500 years ago. Yet, in its long history, there is no specific time when the 'boots' was actually created.

The earliest information about the 'high heel' being used for riding was recorded during the fifth century, when the Huns, under the leadership of Atilla invaded Europe, with the warriors/horsemen wearing 'bright red wooden heels'.

The Huns, considered part of the Mongol nation traces their history since 450 B.C. when Turkic-speaking tribes migrate from Siberia to the steppes north of the Aral and Balkash lakes where they give rise to the Huns.

The Huns (and the Mongols) are consumate horsemen, and the Western Europeans, who during that time was still under the Roman Empire left a mark on the European society.

One of Atilla's most documented battle was the seige of Gaul (present-day France).

So, was it in Gaul that the Europeans began to equate the boots with riding a horse? Again, there is no record.

But owning a horse and riding has always been part of the nobility in Europe. And as the European nobility adapted 'high heels' which sometimes were as high as 3 inches, the term 'well heeled' became synonymous with 'rich'.

By the time the Americas were discovered, the riding boots was already well entrenched in European society.

During England's Cromwellian Interregnum (1647 - 1658), the Stuart cavaliers (king's men) who immigrated to America brought with them their thigh high riding boots with high heels.

Many settled in the south and indeed the bulk of the southern plantation class was descended from cavalier stock; a fact that played a big part in the unfolding of the American Civil War and the pre-eminence of the southern cavalry.

Before and after the civil war many southerners emigrated to Texas or went west to escape the devastation of the war. Again their notion of high heels and nobility went with them.

In his book, Art of the Boot, Tyler Beard said, "In Texas, cattle ranching began around 1820. Yet the legendary cowboy and his lifestyle did not set roots until the spring of 1867."

It was also the year that the beef industry was established, and the "cowboy boot - the single icon that best represent America around the world - was being born."

In 1867, the incomplete transcontinental railroad reached Abilene, Kansas. Joe McCoy, a livestock trader (who will eventually become the first cattle king) advertised for men in Texas to drive longhorns on the open range up to the Kansas railhead.

(Photo: The Texas longhorn)

By the end of this first summer, herds of 2,000 and 3,000 head or more arrived along the Chisholm Trail, which started in Brownsville, Texas (border town between Texas and Mexico) passed through the whole of Texas (including Fort Worth), then the state of Oklahoma, and finally ended in Abilene, Kansas.

With this piece of information, we now know that the cowboy lifestyle, 'driving the herd' as described in the movie, 'City Slickers' was started by Texas men, who drove cattle to Kansas.

Though 'driving cattle' might have also happened in other states, it is the rich history of the Chisholm Trail, that made cowboy life give the 'macho' even romantic undertones.

But who made the first 'cowboy boots' as we know today?

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Art of the Boot

The Cowboy Boot Book
[Buy this book now]