All Western Plastics, Inc. from Lusk, Wyoming built the original plastic saddles from 1946-1949. There were only 65 saddles built before they closed their doors forever.

T. C. "Tommy" Neilson, owner

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The Lusk Herald, January 23, 1947

All Western Plastics, Inc. Incorporating with Lusk Firm to Manufacture Saddles

With the starting of incorporation proceedings this week of All western Plastics, Inc., Lusk was assured of a great expansion of the saddle-making industry, which was started here by T.C. Neilson.

The new corporation, which brings to Lusk the plastics division  started at Alliance, will include Mr. and Mrs. Wm. B. Vandergrift of Alliance and Mr. and Mrs. T.C. Neilson of Lusk as the sole stockholders. 

Mr. and Mrs. Vandegrift are moving to Lusk and are offering to trade their home in  Alliance for a Lusk home, or will buy.

With the showing of the plastic saddle and riding gear at the National Western Livestock Show in Denver the past week, the new business was given an impetus that is yet hard to gauge. The present T.C. Neilson Co. facilities at Lusk will be used at least until found inadequate, and staffs of workmen increased as rapidly as possible to produce the saddles and equipment now on order.

Mr. Vandergrift said the firm is especially interested in veterans who wish training in this new industry.

The new plastic saddle tree patented by the Nielson Company, is being incorporated in the new corporation, and a plastic engineer is to be employed to further develop this phase of the industry.

Mr. Vandegrift pays high compliment to "Tommy" Neilson, who has built the present leather saddle-making industry in Lusk. The fact that he saw the future in plastics as a material for riding equipment, and was willing to make a venture of it, together with the fact that he already has a fine plant, were responsible in getting the industry for Lusk, despite the fact that Casper, Cheyenne and other communities have shown interest in having it here.

Mr. Vandegrift started his plastics work at Alliance and would likely have stayed there had he received the backing, and had there been a manufacturer willing to take on the new work.

He makes it plain that the future of the industry in Lusk will depend much on the extent to which the community wishes to get behind it and see it enlarged.

No saddles have been delivered as yet, though orders have been taken.

Distributors are now being arranged for in various states. 

STRONG BACKING

 That this new industry has a strong interest and backing being given by the B.F. Goodrich Chemical Co., which manufactures "Geon," the plastic raw product, and the Hood Rubber Co. of Watertown, Mass., which moulds the plastic into sheets used by the Lusk firm. 

Mr. Vandegrift began investigating the possibilities of plastic riding equipment early last year and in February took a martingale and bridle to the Goodrich Company. That firm immediately became interested and engaged Mr. Vandegrift to make a saddle and arranged for him to show it at the First N        ational Plastics Exposition at Grand Central Palace in New York on April 22 to 27.

Not being able to get the saddle made at Alliance, Mr. Vandegrift went back near his home on the western slope of Colorado, where he knew a saddlemaker in Crawford, Colo., and there the first plastic saddle was made. Taking a horse, Mr. Vandegrift went back to New York and stole the plastics show, and was popular enough that he received several attractive offers to show it elsewhere. He refused these, however, and turned west to further the business.

Meanwhile "Tommy" Neilson became enough interested in the possibilities of plastics that he had written the Goodrich Company and that firm referred him to Vandegrift, and the two men soon got together with an arrangement for the T.C. Neilson Co. to make the saddles.

Goodrich was enough interested that a color print of one of the saddles and full riding regalia was placed in a number of trade journals to advertise "Geon."

STOCK SHOW SHOWING IS BIG SUCCESS

Through the encouragement of the Brown Place Hotel in Denver, five of the plastic saddles were shown at the National Western Livestock Show. The saddles and full riding gear were on display in the lobby of the Brown Place during the entire show and attracted unusual attention.

Demand out of all proportion to what the firm will be able to produce at first was evidenced. Not only were there requests from individual buyers, but possible distributors made known their interest. Mr. Vandegrift is flying to Oklahoma City with a saddle this Thursday to talk with a prospective distributor.

VANDEGRIFT GREW UP ON A RANGE

Wm. B. Vandegrift is a son of the range. His father owned a ranch near Montrose, Colo., on the Western Slope, and there young Vandegrift punched cows and learned the livestock business. He went to Alliance some seven years ago and five years ago started out in the plastic riding gear business. His hobby is Palomino horses. But very frankly he says he would be nowhere in the plastic saddle business if he hadn't run into such a vigorous fellow as "Tommy" Neilson. He has the finest of reputations as a saddlemaker, and the the plastic saddles displayed have been praised for their excellent workmanship. 

The plastic saddle tree, patented by Neilson, has an unlimited future, Vandegrift believes. It is much stronger and smoother and will prove a great labor saver in saddle manufacture.

Research is now being conducted on still another plastic product that will be of great benefit to the cattlemen, but Mr. Vandegrift said that its nature cannot yet be made public. 

A plastic saddle outfit new costs at least $1550, though fancier ones can be made. Not yet intended for general use, almost the entire demand this far is for show purposes.