The First Western Holster
Stampeded out of the California Gold Rush.
Categories: Shooting from the Hip
By: Phil Spangenberger 01/01/2008
Custom crafted for a particular revolver, such as Colt’s Dragoons, 1849 Pockets or 1851 Navies, these early scabbards featured deep, form-fitted pouches with lower edges contoured to the outline of the gun’s loading lever and trigger guard. Gunleather artisans often cut the fronts and backs of Holster tops, giving them an “S”-shape throat that exposed the gun’s grip, hammer and trigger guard for easy access. Many holsters featuring partial or full flap coverings, and straight or arched throats, did not have a cutout area for the trigger. Most had a sewn-in toe plug or a brass or silver muzzle cap, and a belt loop that was either stitched or riveted to the reverse side. Regardless of detailing, these general features combined to produce a sleek and handsome, silhouette-shaped belt holster that married graceful form with function.
The popularity of this West Coast holster pattern quickly spread eastward, throughout the Western territories. Other gunleather makers, like Denver, Colorado’s E.L. Gallatin, turned out superb examples of the style. By the Civil War, the “California Pattern” holster had become a generic holster design in use nationwide.
In the mid-1870s, with the growing prevalence of metallic cartridge six-guns, the “California Pattern” holster with its small belt loop began to lose favor to the more accommodating “Mexican Loop” holster, which fit more readily over a wider belt full of cartridges. Nonetheless, the “California Pattern” holster remained in use, enjoying limited popularity, throughout the last years of the 19th century. A true Western classic, the “California Pattern” holster paved the way for all holsters of the future.
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