On Cowboy Boots and the Hyer Boot Company, Olathe, KS
Over lunch the other day, a local blogger, Meesha V. claimed that cowboy boots were invented in Olathe, Kansas. He has good reason to think this, because the city itself advertises the fact in a very public fashion. In an unsurprising development, the city has embraced this historically suspect claim to fame and entrenched it in a public art project. To celebrate the city's sesquicentennial, oversized boot sculptures were installed across Olathe, decorated in various themes related to town, country and history. You know, like those stupid cows that everyone copied from Chicago, circa 1999.
What is undeniable is that Olathe was home to a very important boot maker, Hyer Boot company. The linked article from the Kansas State Historical Society contains a very telling line that reads,
"Tradition credits Charles Hyer as one of the first to invent the cowboy boot."
Tradition huh? Like other claims to fame, this one is shrouded in the obfuscating mists of time and the desire for notoriety. But that doesn't mean it's not true.
So in the spirit of goodwill, I'll present some photos of the Hyer boot company, courtesy of JoCoHistory.net, a local collaboration of Johnson County Historical organizations which happens to be the current object of my employment.
All photos come from the Johnson County Museum collection. Clic photos to use the image viewer on the jocohistory site.
Hyer boot and shoe company employees. Note the young boy in the front row
More employees outside the Hyer factory in 1920
An interesting look inside the factory, circa 1895. Note the news poster on the wall announcing the Sino-Japanese War
Hyer workshop in 1910
Work order for a pair of boots for Will Rogers
A.E. Hyer (perhaps the founder's son?) in 1938 in a photo for a local newspaper.
Some time in the 1970's the Hyer company was bought out and continued operations at another Olathe location for a while. Not sure if an incarnation still exists. The original factory building is still known as the "Hyer Building" and was home to the Olathe Tap Room in the 1970s.
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