Olsen Nolte Saddlery - Al Nolte (d. 1942)

SUMMARY: Al Nolte was born in Los Angeles but grew up in San Francisco where he learned saddle making while apprenticing at Main and Winchester. Al went to work for Visalia’s Dave Walker but grew restless drifting to the Denver based saddleries of J H Wilson and Hermann Heiser before returning to the Bay Area where he joined with businessman John E. Olsen to form the Olsen-Nolte firm in the 1937. An instant hit, the partnership became one of the top-ranking saddleries overnight, necessitating an expansion, which ultimately overtaxed Nolte’s capabilities and resulted in his sale to Olsen in 1939 though he did stay on as a saddlemaker until his death in 1942. Nolte was a saddlemaker but not a silversmith so the firm acquired bits and spurs from many of the renowned local Bay Area makers including Miller and Tietjen, Filo Gutierrez, John Estrada, Dick Fleming, Larry Hoback and J.R. Lamdin and Robert Schaezlein Sr. Following Al Nolte’s death in 1942, Walt Goldsmith, an equally gifted saddlemaker, who had been with the firm since 1938 assumed Nolte’s position in the shop.

DETAILS: The Olsen-Nolte saddle shop of San Francisco might be considered a newer company when compared with the history and traditions surrounding most of the saddleries of the West. While this firm did not reach its present established form until around 1937, the Nolte saddle has a history and background dating from the early part of the century.
Al Nolte, the founder of the firm, was a native Californian who held strictly to the Californian ideas of building saddles. Born in Los Angeles and growing to young manhood in San Francisco, he entered the old Main and Winchester shop to learn the saddler's trade. After completing his apprenticeship with Main and Winchester, he went to work for Dave Walker of Visalia Stock Saddle Company fame, another early graduate from the Main and Winchester Saddlery. In the Walker shop he took a finishing course in building custom-made saddles. But Nolte was afflicted with the same malady that most cowboys are subject to; he wanted to see what lay over the next ridge. He left Walker's within a few years, drifting attention eastward. We next hear of him in Denver, where he went to work for the old J.H. Wilson Saddlery. After only a few months, he moved over to the neighboring Hermann H. Heiser Company where he stayed for nearly a year, but his tumbleweed nature refused to take root.
Sometime later, he turned up in Calgary, Alberta—broke, as usual. But just as usual, he found a ready opening with the Great West Saddlery Company. He put in nearly a year there, heading back south before the second Alberta winter. His next stop was Seattle, where he worked for a short time. However, the pull of his native state was too strong and he soon landed back in San Francisco, broke again.
Though his travels had gained him nothing in a financial way, his varied experiences in the many different regions had rewarded him with a fine working knowledge of the assorted aspects of his trade and it had finally cured his wanderlust. Al was ready to turn his attention to the serious side of life so he went back to work for Walker.
During the eight following years in the Walker shop, Nolte learned many of the finer points which went into the making of a top quality saddle. This, added to the varied assortment of regional specialties he had picked up during his barnstorming years in the West's different shops, gave him the incentive to establish a business of his own. Meanwhile, he had made a wide circle of friends and acquaintances in the historic San Francisco's Butchertown district. Many of these individuals had followed his work through the years, often insisting on a Nolte job when ordering from the Walker Company. So it was quite natural for Nolte to open his first shop in Butchertown and, though he moved several times later, never left the confines of Butchertown and his friendly clientele.
Butchertown was a good location for a saddle shop; this packing district, situated near the stockyards, was the first point of call for visiting cowboys and stockmen from the back country. There, in common with most saddle shops, Nolte's soon became the main rendezvous site for the horseback fraternity. Saddle talk is ever close to saddle purchase. Nolte could build anything a man wanted and his trade increased but the only drawback, unfortunately, was a lack of business ability and financial knowledge. What could have been built into one of the more important saddleries in the West was held down to limited size by Nolte's insistence on maintaining a one-man shop. His only deviation from this policy was a brief partnership with Steve Ybarra, another Walker-trained saddlemaker. However, Nolte soon resumed his one-man operations.
This went on until one day in 1937, when a man by the name of John E. Olsen came in to buy a saddle. Olsen was not a stockman, but he did own some very fine horses. He wanted a rather elaborate saddle that would complement his animals; in price and design -- considerably beyond the unadorned range saddles that Nolte was accustomed to making. He was experiencing one of his periodical financial depressions and, in the course of some tall figuring, performed his one great act of salesmanship by selling not only the saddle, but a half interest in the shop, as well.
Mr. Olsen was a young man with manufacturing and business experience. He also had sufficient financial backing to supply all the Nolte shop had lacked since first opening its doors. From there on, the Olsen-Nolte Saddlery was a thriving concern. In fact, it sprang into the brackets of a top-ranking saddlery almost ovemight. The business boomed to such an extent that they soon had to move into more commodious quarters for handling the expanded output.
Here it was that Al Nolte discovered the folly of a man trying to outreach his capabilities. He simply could not adjust to the expanded business proportions. Fortunately, he realized the handicap of a one-man show trying to put on a three-ring act and it was with a sense of relief that he sold his interest in the firm to his partner. Until his death in 1942, he stayed on as an in-house saddlemaker.
Though new to the saddlery business, Olsen had the financial and administrative ability to forward his aims. His lack of knowledge in the production end of the business was ably supplied by Nolte until his death and his successor, the equally talented, Walter Goldsmith, who had been with the firm since 1938.
Before becoming a saddlemaker, Walt Goldsmith had been a cowpuncher from the White River country over on the western slope of Colorado. He had ridden the rough String for the Old Square S outfit and worked for many other lesser cowmen. He had even built up a small spread of his own during his homesteading days. Long hours in the saddle on many ranges, days of snow and blizzards in winter followed by long hours of sun and dust in summer, had taught him what qualities a saddle must have to endure rough country range work. No man ever went into a saddle shop with a better background for qualifying as a saddlemaker. His entry into the saddlery business was as an apprentice treemaker. Thus, he started at the very foundation of the trade, advancing to the designing and building of saddles. He was a top-notch craftsman with imagination and ingenuity by the time he took over the Olsen-Nolte shop in 1942.
Modern saddles of that period were be roughly divided into three classes: those for the working range hand, those used by rodeo cowboys in arena contests, and the elaborately carved and silver decorated types used for show purposes. The first two styles became standardized throughout the country, differing mainly in quality of materials and workmanship. Still, despite standardization, each saddle shop managed to retain a certain amount of individuality in its product
With Goldsmith’s individuality of design in quality work saddles and the finely carved, silver trimmed show saddles commanded special attention in every arena where they were shown, confirming the Butchertown saddlery had come of age.

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