Capitol Saddlery · History

History

Capitol Saddlery was an Austin, Texas shop where Charlie Dunn and, later, Ramon Navarro made cowboy boots, though saddle-making was the larger side of the business. The Handbook of Texas says Thomas Casper “Buck” Steiner started the saddle and boot shop in 1930; the Christian Science Monitor (8 May 1992) puts the opening at 1614 Lavaca Street sixty-two years earlier — the same 1930 — and reports that Steiner got into saddle-making while traveling with his rodeo, eventually supplying 96 saddlemakers to Sears and Montgomery Ward, with the saddle side dropping off after World War II.

By 1992 the shop still offered handmade boots starting at $500, and Steiner was quoted: “We make the finest boots of anybody in the United States.” The chief bootmaker in that account was Navarro; Dunn had worked the bench in the shop’s earlier years. Sources differ on when the shop opened: the Handbook of Texas and the 1992 Monitor article both give 1930, while a National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum note says Steiner established the shop only after he retired from rodeo competition. The Handbook dates Steiner’s death to 14 May 2001.