Boss of the Plains

The Boss of the Plains was a lightweight all-weather hat designed in 1865 by John B. Stetson for the demands of the American West.

[1] The term "Stetson" eventually became all-but-interchangeable with what later became known as the cowboy hat due to later style-designs based on how the rounded-crown would deform from regular use.

[8] The straight-sided, round cornered, flat brimmed original Boss of the Plains design dominated for about twenty years.

Entertainers who promoted cowboy and western culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries popularized Stetson designs.

At times, various politicians, celebrities and law enforcement units adopted descendants of the Boss of the Plains hat to strengthen their association with the culture and values of the Old West.

[13] Robert Baden-Powell learned of the practicality of the Boss of the Plains hat through his association with Frederick Russell Burnham during the Second Matabele War of 1896–97, and he popularized the campaign hat or "lemon squeezer" style (i.e. flat brim with four dents at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock) during the Siege of Mafeking in the Second Anglo-Boer War.

Popular culture has it that, on receiving the first shipment of hats from the Stetson company, the handbill identified them as 'hats, B-P style', which was misconstrued as an allusion to Baden-Powell's initials.