The Legend of the Bolo Tie

Some of the most enduring things start as accidents. The bolo tie is apparently one of them.

In the late 1940s, an Arizona silversmith named Victor Cedarstaff was out riding his horse when the wind took his hat clean off. He got down to grab it and discovered that his hatband had come detached. Concerned he’d lose it, he threw it around his neck for safekeeping — and rode on, not thinking much of it.

The Spark

A friend riding with him jokingly told him he liked his tie. A passing comment he didn’t realize would later inspire a staple of Southwest jewelry. Cedarstaff couldn’t stop thinking about it.

He went home and built the real thing: braided leather, silver tips so the ends wouldn’t fray, and a slide to cinch it at the throat. What started as a joke, later became a deliberate piece of craftsmanship.

The Naming

He originally called it the “bola” tie, after the boleadoras — the weapon gauchos, the cowboys of South America, would hurl to wrangle cattle and other livestock. These were similarly made from braided cords gathered at a single point, with weighted ends hanging free below.

As the tie spread across the Southwest, “bola” gave way to “bolo,” the version we know today.

The Legacy

From that windblown accident, the bolo became a signature of the American West. Southwestern silversmiths took Cedarstaff’s simple slide-and-cord and made it an art form — stamping the silver, setting it with turquoise, treating the slide as a small canvas.

It has since become the official neckwear of three states — Arizona first, in ’71, then New Mexico and Texas. A state doesn’t hand that title to a passing trend. It saves it for the things that become part of who it is.

Born by accident, kept on purpose.