How did cowboys, working in the heat of summer, stay cool in their hats?
Neal Hathaway
Durango, Colorado
They didn’t! Straw hats were much cooler. However, most cowboys stubbornly refused to wear those hats, no matter how hot it got, as a substitute for their Stetsons. Many did wear lighter colored hats that wouldn’t hold the heat as much as black ones.
Marshall Trimble is Arizona’s official historian and the Wild West History Association’s vice president. His latest book is 2018’s Arizona Oddities: A Land of Anomalies and Tamales. Send your question, with your city/state of residence, to marshall.trimble@
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