It’s a commonly asked question of city folk and Easterners when they visit the great American West.
What’s with the cowboy boots on fence posts?
What passes for perfectly every day for some ranchers might appear a baffling puzzle to the uninitiated.
The practice of hanging an old worn-out boot over the top of a fence post is one that could have a few meanings, but be assured, it most certainly is not a shoe exchange of some kind — take one, leave one. Nor is it a rural lost and found.
The significance of a boot on a fence is almost always a symbolic gesture honoring a departed horse, ranch hand or family member. But that’s not exclusive.
There are other reasons one might encounter an old boot draped upside-down on a post, ranging from the practical to a form of communication from a bygone era.
Anyone Heard Of This?
Jack Farrell was a ranch boss at Sombrero Ranches in Colorado for decades.
He said there were many a wrangler that worked for him who discarded their old boots by adding to a collection of weatherworn boots already atop fence posts surrounding the ranch property.
“It’s like throwing bras onstage at a Tom Jones concert. Once one does it, they all have to do it and they don’t really even know why after long,” Farrell said. “I guess it all started with a purpose, but I’ll be danged if anyone ever knew what that was.”
Farrell at least knows of the custom.
Most ranchers contacted for this story had either never seen it done or didn’t know the significance behind it.
“Never heard of it,” said Kelly Lockhart, patriarch of a sixth-generation family cattle ranch based in Jackson, Wyoming.
Another, Bruce Davies, remembers his father telling him stories of the old days as a ranch hand at the Huxtable Ranch in Boxelder south of Glenrock back in the 1950s.
Davies’ father said it was a common practice to string up dead coyote pelts on fence posts or over the top wire to keep other coyotes away.
He also recalled old boots put on fence posts when they were too worn out to wear.
He assumed it was for the same reason: coyotes would associate the smell of the boots with gun-toting ranchers and steer clear.
Significance Behind The Oddity?
Boots on a fence post probably originated in the most benign of ways.
It was difficult to throw things away for many in earlier generations. Footwear at the end of its life simply made for a handy decoration to spruce up the property line.
But the practicality of covering a fence post makes sense as some claim. A boot placed over a post would keep rain from seeping into the wood and decaying the post prematurely.
Typically, it is thought boots on a fence are there as a memorial to a favorite horse, a lost member of the family or a beloved ranch worker who passed away.
Some have speculated boots perched atop of fence post could also serve as communication in days before cellphones, for example. A visitor could instantly tell whether the homeowner was around or not.
A boot with its toe turned toward the main house indicated the rancher or farmer was at home. A boot pointed in any other direction was to show the owner was still at work — the boot pointing to the field he was working in.
It's A Western Thing
Boots on a fence post can be readily observed even today in places like Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and especially Texas.
In Texas, boots on fences is practically folk art.
One of the more impressive old boot displays can be found in Kerr County on the fence line 6 miles southwest of Hunt, off State Highway 39.
In Malad, Idaho, more than a mile of fence along a farm is pocked with a cowboy boot on every post.
Ranchers and cowboys are never short on superstitions, and there are plenty concerning boots.
• It’s bad luck to step into your left boot first.
• Tripping over a boot is a bad omen.
• If you set your boots on a table, you will quarrel with someone soon.
• If you stow your boots higher than your head at night, you will have a restless night’s sleep.
• Never accept a gift of old boots or you will walk in the former owner’s troubles.
• And never, ever wear a dead man’s boots.
Contact Jake Nichols at jake@cowboystatedaily.com
Jake Nichols can be reached at jake@cowboystatedaily.com.
