Staking out my territory

Northern California
The Great Basin
The Columbia Plateau
The Sate of Jefferson
Cascadia
The ION ( Idaho-Oregon-Nevada in buckaroo-speak)
The historical range of the West-Slope trouts...

I've been thinking about what defines the territory that I consider myself to be a product of.
To simplify things, I'll define it as the country West of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and including Hawaii.
Much of this Trad/Resurgence quadrant of the blogosphere originates in New York and New England and with the point-of-view of East Coast tradition and heritage. It is my hope that this blog adds one man's West Coast point-of-view to the conversation.

I have my East Coast bragging rights too- the first Hudson to pay a visit arrived in 1607, and became a permanent resident in 1611 (though not by choice.) He got a river and a bay named after him for his troubles. The first of my branch of the Hudson clan to settle in what is now the USA showed up in Virginia in 1635.
But it is my ancesters who came to Northern California from Sweden, England, and Missouri in the mid-late 19th century that most define me and capture my imagination. Ranchers, carpenters, miners, doctors, teachers...later heavy equipment mechanics, and my dear old dad who played an important part in putting a man on the moon. I am humbled by the hardships that they endured and by what they were able to accomplish.

Many of the heritage brands that we are buying, using, and cheering onward were forged in the Pacific West:
Levi Strauss
Ben Davis
Pendleton Woolen Mills
White's Boots
CC Filson
In my time, new brands have been born here that will be the heritage brands of the next generation:
The North Face
Sierra Designs
Pacific Iron Works/Patagonia
Mulholland Brothers
In your time- if you are younger than I (and you probably are) the next wave:
The bicycle builders of Portland- as good as anything that came out of post-war France
Archival Clothing
Rising Sun & Co.
Yuketen

In addition to the above with an international audience, there is a robust resurgence movement going on in the Buckaroo community that rivals anything going on in the larger Trad/Resurgence world for passion, quality, and authenticity and deserves a wider audience than working cowboys and cowboy poetry groupies.

If New England's poetic voice is Salinger, the Pacific Coast's is Steinbeck, Stegner, and Kerouac.

About F&D Co.

Some 7 or so years ago, I set out, with the help of my sister, to build a brand around gear that was authentic and well made, with a focus on a small handful of venerable American companies that have resisted the relentless push to sacrifice quality for increased market share and profits. We were growing increasing dissatisfied with the avalanche of cheap disposable crap- particularly offerings from companies trading on their hard-earned reputation for quality gear to peddle pale imitations of what their brands once stood for.

Thus Five & Dime Cowboy was born. The name is a double reference. First to the now largely disappeared family-owned businesses of our youth- five and dimes, hardware stores, butcher shops- and the way in which the internet and Ebay had become a virtual wayback machine. The second reference is to the derogatory term “dimestore cowboy”- someone who affects cowboy dress, but has no connection to land, livestock, or horsemanship…”all hat, and no horse.” A bass-ackwards name for a brand that intends to focus on quality and authenticity, but a reminder that the line between an authentic style and mere affectation can become thin indeed.

Little did we know that we were out in front of a tidal wave of interest in authentic American goods. In addition, we didn’t fully appreciate the amount of time and capital required to bring the brand to life. We had a grand time though- buying up a pile of New-Old-Stock vintage clothing and gear on Ebay, and becoming experts in categories that few in the world cared about any longer.

The purpose of this blog is to winnow and sort the collections- some of the goods bound for the mountain cabin, some for Ebay, and some reserved for daily use. All of this liberally larded with references to things, people, and places that I find interesting, worthy of comment, and, above all, real.

To be sure, others have plowed large swaths of this ground before me with considerable energy and devotion- Leslie Larson of Archival Clothing, Andy Beach of Reference Library, and Michael Williams of A Continuous Lean to name a few. I don’t hope to match these efforts, but I hope that you will find something of interest here.