HANDGUNS

The business card declares, simply, “Trent Johnson, Hatter.” And yes, Trent Johnson does make hats, but anyone who knows the owner of Greeley Hat Works knows that the title doesn’t quite capture the measure of the man. This gregarious, down-to-earth Coloradoan is more than a craftsman. He is an artisan.

Doug Hansen describes his business as “a modern workshop outfitted with antique tools…oddball stuff from the 1800s.” Hansen builds and restores traditional stagecoaches and wagons by the exacting methods of 19th-century craftsmen, a business that began as a hobby 32 years ago when he restored an old buggy for fun. Since that 1978 project, Hansen has made himself an expert on the subject.

When something breaks on the ranch, a cowboy’s got to fix it. Cash flow and isolation often leave him no option, which is why the skill of welding is so important. An oxyacetylene torch and a plasma cutter can be your best friends, as trailers inevitably get bent out of shape, gate hangers snap off , and machinery fails.

The business card declares, simply, “Trent Johnson, Hatter.” And yes, Trent Johnson does make hats, but anyone who knows the owner of Greeley Hat Works knows that the title doesn’t quite capture the measure of the man. This gregarious, down-to-earth Coloradoan is more than a craftsman. He is an artisan.

Just outside Litchfield, Minn., an hour or so west of Minneapolis, out where cornfields
dominate the landscape, there stands a little factory where a mini-revolution in Western wear is taking place.