And the answer to the mystery photo is a saddle iron (AKA running iron). No, you don’t use it instead of a clothes iron to iron saddle leather. It is used to brand cattle and portable enough to be carried in a saddle bag.
This one is owned by Mike and Jackie Brennan of Meeker. Mike is our custom saddle maker doing business as Pistol River Leather. Jackie keeps track of Mike. This particular saddle iron was made in Fruita, Colorado by “Tex” Violet. John Barney, in his book “Looking Back”, mentions using one.
Branding of cattle was usually done in camps with several cowboys teaming up to gather the cattle, rope the calves, and giving the unbranded cattle brands to match the mothers. The branding irons were about 3-foot-long rods with letters, numbers or geometry shapes. This established ownership.
Sometimes in riding the open range, a cowboy would spot a cow with her unbranded calf. Rather than rope the calf and haul it into camp, the cowboy would decide to brand it right there. Well, hauling around a 3-foot rod with his brand was just not practical. Especially if his brand required more than one iron to complete it. The alternative was a short iron rod that could be attached to a stick and used to draw any brand. A later solution was the saddle iron in our picture.
The “B” shape of this 4×6-inch copper device allowed the cowboy to insert two green sticks as a temporary handle. Chokecherry or serviceberry branches were often used for the sticks. The saddle iron would then be heated in a campfire. Copper changes colors when heated and the cowboy could tell by the color if the temperature was hot enough to brand.
If you look at the edges of the saddle iron, you see a short straight line, a long straight line, and a curve. By applying different edges to a cowhide, you could create | ; / ; \ ; quarter circles, boxes, triangles, letters, numbers or any other shape that needed a full brand design. It certainly wasn’t as easy as using the full 3-foot ready-made irons used in team branding efforts.
The big advantage of a saddle iron is that you could carry it in a saddle bag. It saved space and weight; valuable things when riding the range. The disadvantage is the calf doesn’t have much patience as you apply the iron at several times to create a shape. Cattle in general have no artistic sense and posing for artists with red hot iron sticks just doesn’t come naturally. They don’t understand “hold still so I don’t blur this line” instructions. There are many adult cattle out there with identity crises due to blurry brands.
Editor’s note: Thanks to Greg Glasgow and others who called, emailed, or commented on social media in response to the photo.
By ED PECK – Special to the Herald times
