*SOLD* Winchester 90 .22 Short Blue 24" *HAND TOOLED BY SADDLE MAKER DON ATKINSON*

Calibers for the rifle include .22 Short, .22 Long, .22 Long Rifle, and .22 Winchester Rimfire. The Model 1890 will only feed the round specific to that gun (e.g. a Model 1890 stamped ".22 Short" on the barrel will not feed .22 Long, .22 Long Rifle, or .22 WRF; despite there being other 1890s chambered in those calibers). The .22 Long Rifle version was added in 1919.

The Missouri field looked like a board game, with its neat windrows of hay laid out on it. A lone farmer carefully guided his baler down each row. He blotted some sweat and dust out of his eyes as he surveyed his work. The farmer decided that his baler needed an adjustment. The tractor was moving slowly and the farmer stepped down to fix the baler on the fly. When the bad step happened, it came fast. As the farmer fell, he saw the baler looming over him like a savage animal. Seconds away from tragedy, he did the only thing he could do. Kicking up at the machinery as hard as he could, he lodged the leather heel of his cowboy boot into the gears of the baler. It took the sacrifice and jammed on the leather heel.

As the farmer slid his foot out of the ruined boot, he had a new appreciation for its solid construction. But, he might never have owned the boot if a young boy hadn’t sought refuge in a dark movie theater on Saturday afternoons.

Don had a cap pistol like his matinee idols carried, but he decided that he really needed a holster to carry it in. The obvious thing to do was to go to the local saddle shop to find out about getting one. A saddle maker named Monroe Veach lived in Trenton and had made a name for himself making trick saddles, and later, roping saddles. Monroe gave the little boy some leather and instructions. When Don actually completed the holster, Monroe decided that he had potential. Monroe had been motivated by Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Show as a young boy and had become a trick rider and trick roper. Perhaps he saw himself in Don. For the next nine years Don learned about the leather business from Monroe.

“Monroe had a whole bunch of kids and Don just fit right in,” says Virginia Atkinson. “Monroe’s son, Billy Veach, became Don’s best friend.”

“He thought of Monroe as his dad,” says James Batchelder, Don’s stepson. “Monroe really took him under his wing.”

Monroe helped Don build his first saddle, which was a miniature. Don also wanted to learn about boot making and would work for any boot maker he could, just to learn more about it.

Don opened his first shop in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, when he was 18. He day-worked on a local ranch, owned by the Johnson family, to make a little extra money. He became friends with their boy, Son Johnson. Son was a roper as well, but he was already going out to Hollywood, doing some stunts and wrangling in the movies. Soon he would get an acting contract from director John Ford and be known as Ben Johnson.

Don liked making gear and saddles for fellow rodeo cowboys. He was proud of the trophy saddles he made for seven years for the European Rodeo Association, the trophy saddle for the 1983 “Clem McSpadden’s World’s Richest Roping,” and the trophy saddle for the 1967 RCA National Finals Rodeo. The latter was won by Larry Mahan, who became friends with Don after that. Mahan’s saddle ended up in the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

Don preferred to make saddles, but he became well known for his ability to fit a custom boot, as well as fix problems with orthotics in his boots so that they still looked good.  His ingenuity didn’t stop there. He also built several saddles for children with disabilities that kept them on a horse and allowed them to ride. A man in Trenton blew off two middle fingers and a thumb in an accident; Don made him an actual hand out of rawhide that he could pick things up with.

“It was the coolest thing. It looked just like a hand but a different color,” says Erick Wattenbarger, Don’s other stepson.

Virginia Atkinson met Don in the early 1980’s. They were married in 1983. Her two sons, James and Erick, took to Don immediately and he began to teach them about leatherwork. Virginia learned to sew boot tops and became very good at it. Later, she added purses and belts to her repertoire.

Don impressed on the boys that he was committed to his work.

“Don always said that he would die at his workbench,” says James.

Don worked with a lot of exotic leathers in his boots. He liked to pick the leather out himself and take his time fondling it. His favorite was full-quill ostrich. He also used a lot of farm-raised alligator. Don had a phobia about snakes though and he was deathly afraid of them. He didn’t even like handling snakeskin. Don would only make boots with snakeskin if a customer really wanted them. Don collected stray cats and filled his horse barn up with them. He fed them well to keep them around, just so they would keep the snakes away.

Don made many of his own tools; he even used broken glass early in his career for some trimming jobs in boots. He learned how to make boots in an old-school way that he stuck with for his entire career. He made his own bottoming thread by wrapping 14 strands of flax thread together to form a larger cable, which he twisted and rubbed with rosin.

Del Way was Don’s pastor towards the end of his life. Del was a recording artist as well and had come to Don to get a guitar strap, but left with a close friendship. Del eventually had a saddle made, and also collected quite a few pieces that Don had made and various memorabilia from Don’s life. A month before Don’s death, Del’s church dedicated their new arena to Don.

“Don was a good Christian. I liked him because he was raw,” reflects Del. “He said what was on his mind. He was Christian, but he wasn’t religious.”

One night, Erick returned to the shop and found Don lying on the floor after suffering a massive heart attack. Don passed away a few days later on July 15, 2011, at the age of 82, never regaining consciousness.

In 2016, a dusty motorcycle rider pulled up in front of Don’s shop. The leather clad German walked up to the door to say hello to his old friend, only to find it locked and the shop empty. Sadly, he continued on his journey towards El Paso.

John Weinkauf, a boot maker in the Kerrville area, made belts for Clint Orms. He stopped in at Don’s occasionally.

“His boots were typical of that old-style look. They were a sturdy, stout boot,” says John.

Sturdy enough to stop a hay baler.
 

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