the original n.porter saddle nr.36164 used good condition call 860-478-6466 price-$ 825. N Porter Co. Tucson, Arizona "Porter Saddlery started out in a canvas tent just after the Civil War in Abilene, KS..Newton Porter (N Porter) was the first, hence the stamp. In 1888, they moved to Washington State. By the early 1900s, they had set up shop in Phoenix with clientele in Tucson and southern Arizona serviced by a traveling sales wagon. Harold Porter was born in Phoenix. Harold picked up the reins of the family business in 1925 when his father passed. In the 1930s, Harold moved to Tucson and set-up a brick and mortar store, strictly saddlery, on Congress Street. Slowly Harold introduced Western wear to the mix. He took the striped. lighter fabric of the gambler's pants and had his tailor create a new, lighter weight version of the frontier pant, just for himself at first. However, they soon were in demand as a staple wear among the men folk in the area. Back then, squaw skirt outfits were what every well-dressed Tucson lady clamored to wear and Harold gave them what they wanted. He had four or five seamstresses creating them exclusively under the Porter label. I still have one, my grandma's, that I wear with pride. In the late 1930s, Porter's moved, up-scaled they called it, to a store in the Pioneer hotel. Porter's was frequented both by your average cowboy and a whole string of celebrities. In 1963, they moved to a larger store in the 800 block of N. Stone Ave. He chose the location because it allowed his cowboy clientele to pull in and park with their horse trailers. Porter's closed their doors on April 1, 1983 due to Harold's poor health. He died 5 years later at the age of 84. Interestingly, it wasn't Harold or any of his descendants or kin who built the saddles with the Porter stamp in Tucson, at least. Jay Walker was Porter's saddle man for close to thirty years or more. In the late 1920s, Porter's built and presented the trophy saddle to Lee Anderson at the Tucson Rodeo. It was the predecessor to the modern day roping saddle. In the Tucson area, if you sat a Porter saddle, it meant you had made something of yourself. I have my Grandfather's Porter with its custom tapaderos, circa 1929." Information courtesy of Catherine Lilbit Devine, Tucson, AZ