Mercantile Spotlight – Rockmount Ranch wear

The High Lonesome Ranch Mercantile is another way we can practice our value of land stewardship and sharing our passion with others for today’s and future generations. Not only do we get to support USA made products that are high quality and as iconic as our landscape, we get to celebrate our neighbors on The Front Range with this Denver-based company that is 75 years young and whose store is an American Landmark in its own right.

Rockmount Ranch Wear is the last of the original USA made Western brands. “Papa Jack” A. Weil founded the company and pioneered the snap-button technology making his shirts just as popular for their practical and easy wearing as for the couturial appeal of their stylish silhouettes, striking colors and prints, and fine embroidery detail. The slimmer fit in contrast to other work shirts at the time and the yoke across the shoulders appealed to the Cinematic Cowboy celebrities of the time as they cut an even more striking figure across television sets and big screens.

Their popularity also spread across rock ‘n’ roll stages thanks to VIP’s like Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan. They continue to be worn by movie stars, musicians from indie to mainstream pop, comedians, models for Vogue and Cosmopolitan magazines, and the rest of us with that Western state of mind.

On a personal note, I would like to share my interest in offering Rockmount Ranch Wear apparel in our Mercantile. My father raised us watching classic westerns featuring John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Kirk Douglas to name a few. In fact, he followed his own cowboy dreams out west from Pennsylvania to Montana where he and my mother brought me and my siblings up riding horses, hiking, camping, fishing, and engaging with the natural world around us. Fast forward to a few years ago when I moved to the Denver metro area and my dad came to visit. Rockmount Ranch Wear’s only storefront on Wazee Street in the heart of downtown Denver was one of the few places he specifically requested to go.

While the timeless style and flare of Rockmount shirts have unquestionably stood the test of fashion and fads it’s those snap buttons that keep them close to my own heart. Perhaps my father was a little too cowboy in his youth. You see, as my father ages doing up buttons can be nearly impossible for his hands as injuries from his earlier life are felt more and more. I learned the day we went to Rockmount, how something as small and decoratively functional as a snap button can have a huge impact. My father has always cared about his attire, a hand-me-down from his Italian heritage and relatives. Rockmount shirts allow him to present his authentic cowboy self with dignity. I am incredibly grateful for that gift of grace from the work of another remarkable “ol’ timer” and his family.

“Papa Jack” worked until the very respectable age of 107, that demonstrates how much he loved what he did. And Rockmount is still operated by his descendants with his grandson, Steve Weil, heading up the company as President and the addition of “Papa Jack’s” great-grandson, David Oksner, the legacy continues into the fourth generation. Strong inspiration to anyone, and certainly to those of us at The High Lonesome Ranch as we seek to celebrate and share our roots (sometimes literally) and responsibility in stewarding this great land we call home. We are dedicated to restoring the landscape through regenerative ranching methods that see cattle and cowboys on the Land still.

Rockmount Ranch Wear is appealing not just for their prestige and style, but for the quality and dedication to homegrown quality production. We are honored by the opportunity to showcase the shirts and western wear pieces produced by our Front Range neighbors, and to share Colorado history and Western glamor with our guests, visitors, and neighbors. Whether you stop by our Mercantile to sample our selection of Rockmount Western Wear shirts or browse the other offerings on Rockmount’s own online shop or even make a visit to their storefront, I’m sure you’ll be impressed as we are with their pioneering elegance.

We hope to see you at The Ranch and in The Mercantile soon.

Warmest regards,

Ariel Riccardi

Ranch Services Director

View more on Rockmount Ranch Wear Website

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