A Boot Collector Feature
A former bull rider and Korean War veteran who built boots across three states over six decades before Larry Mahan talked him into settling in the Texas Hill Country.
Don Atkinson's path to bootmaking started far from Texas. Raised in Trenton, Missouri, he got his start in the trade under bootmaker Monroe Veach and, by his late teens, opened his own first shop in Pawhuska, Oklahoma — the same Pawhuska listed in the Oklahoma Historical Society's encyclopedia of the state's boot and saddle makers. That early run was interrupted by the Army and service in the Korean War; after returning home, Atkinson went back to bootmaking in Trenton before a detour into the restaurant business, running a Chuck Wagon-style eatery for a stretch.
A former bull rider himself, Atkinson eventually returned to the bench full-time, and in 1985 relocated to the Texas Hill Country at the urging of rodeo champion and actor Larry Mahan, setting up the combined custom boot and saddle shop in Ingram, Texas that carried his name for the rest of his career — a pairing of trades that reflects how often bootmaking and saddlemaking have overlapped in small Hill Country towns. He built a reputation for elaborate show boots finished to a standard well above everyday wear, detailed enough that a Texas Monthly feature on the state's top bootmakers singled out his finish quality specifically. Atkinson died on July 15, 2011.
Show-quality boots with standout finish work, built by a former rodeo competitor and Korean War veteran who carried that same attention to detail from saddlemaking into boots across three states and six decades.
Elaborate show boots from a former bull rider's bench.
Pairs from smaller, custom, or long-closed makers rarely come up for sale, so this search may not find anything. It’s worth checking back now and then.