Before the West End was known for mining, it was cattle country. The Club Ranch, one of western Colorado’s oldest and most well-known ranches, was established in the 1800s with others following. Settlers, of whom many descendants still run livestock, came to the area using the Placerville station as a cattle shipping port. That cowboy heritage means local people likely have some old saddles in their barns. At the same time, other horse people not native to the area probably have old saddles too. Now, the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition Education Project (DEEEP) is asking for photos of the saddles, and the older the better. Carol Hunter, of Nucla and DEEEP’s founder, said she’s interested in the structure of the saddles, not the decorations.
Hunter, with help from many locals, founded DEEEP in 2020. The historical project focuses on the Dominguez-Escalante route the old Franciscan priests took in 1776, traveling from Santa Fe through western Colorado and aiming for California.
DEEEP’s website, www.deeepcolorado.com, is up and running with the addition of tactile learning tools. Now, Hunter, inspired by Nucla’s John Reed, is adding the old saddle portion, and she’s asking for community participation. Specifically, DEEEP representatives want help in tracing the evolution of the western saddle from 1776 to 1976. The goal is to create 3-D models demonstrating that.
“This will be the first step in a new project designed just for West End students,” Hunter said.
The Ute Indian Museum has given photos of their saddle, and the Rimrocker Historical Society Museum has an old saddle too, but the board needs help learning more about it.
Hunter told the Forum saddle names and approximate ages are ideal for photo submissions, along with any related history. She’s happy to come take photos, or people can email those. Most importantly, she’d really like submissions to be local, from the West End.
Some U.S. saddle museums have begun sending Hunter information. Anyone interested should contact her. She said she knows only a little about western tack, though she did raise her children in Meeteetse, Wyoming, a small cattle town started in 1875. She’s also ridden, though she doesn’t call herself an equestrian. She’s currently reading a book that a Missouri museum gave her about western tack’s history. It explains how the saddle made its way from Spain to Mexico, into Texas, and then progressed.
As she gathers local saddle photos, Carol Claypool, a DEEEP artist, will take them and make them into drawings. She’ll give those to Britt Hoff, of HnH Sign, who will produce the tactile learning materials. The models will help tell the story of the western saddle’s history.
Hunter has met with administrators at West End Public Schools, and she said they’re excited to involve students in helping test the materials and give feedback. Once the models are done, they’ll be housed at the Rimrocker Historical Society, now the home of the DEEEP work, though another set of models will be given to the local school.
Hunter said the Dominguez-Escalante history is fascinating for many reasons and for West End students. The Franciscan friars did make their way through Nucla-Naturita with their horses and supplies. Now the project will share even more of the related history with kids and adults too, plus make the learning tools available in a variety of ways that accommodate the visually impaired and others with special needs.
It’s all culminating now in time for the America 250-Colorado 150 Commission, celebrating the births of the nation and state, respectively.
For those with photos of old saddles, or who have questions, they should email Hunter at deeepcoordinator@gmail.com.
“We want to keep it local,” she said. “We really want local saddles and to keep this project about our local history. We want the local saddles to be part of the story.”
