Back some time ago, I decided I wanted to become a bootmaker, specifically a cowboy bootmaker. This had something to do with to my getting hold of a copy of Tyler Beard's & Jim Arndt's The Cowboy Boot Book, and, about the same time, finding a pair of peewees (circa 1950) that fit me, attitude n' all: little black Corrals with a wide box toe. Anyway, these two things changed my life.

When I think about boots, all sorts of thing come to mind: I think of art, romance, history and adventure...I like custom-made cowboy boots because they represent to me the best of both individualism and collaboration. Customers bring a purpose and a personality...bootmakers provide a range of materials, traditions, expertise and innovation. To me, custom cowboy boots are a sort of portraiture, full of imagination, meaning and metaphor.

I first posted this web page back in February 1997. Back then there wasn't much on the internet about cowboy boots or bootmaking. So I designed my Tribute to Cowboy Boots website, to do the following:

1. provide information about the American craft of custom cowboy bootmaking,
2. make it fun and easy to find boot-related links on the world-wide-web, and...
3. get people as excited about cowboy boots as I was when I pulled on that pair of Corrals.

Then in October of 1998, something amazing happened. I was driving through the New Mexican desert, I stopped to take a picture in Alamogordo, the place where Highway 54 and 70 crossed one another. Afterwards, I stepped into the Boot Hill Café, ordered "the special", chatted some with the waitress and the owner, and talked about my trip a bit. As I was leaving, the owner showed me that their menu had a picture of a boot on it.

To my surprise, the menu didn't have just any boot on it. It had MY boot on it! The one at the top of my web page...the same image I scanned myself from a 1950's cardboard cut-out...the same boot that was on my business card I'd just handed to the owner! The owner told me her nephew had gotten the picture "off the computer". Let me tell you, it is a very peculiar thing to have one of your ideas handed back to you by a stranger in the middle of a wide nearly-empty New Mexico desert. She gave me a menu to take with me as a souvenir, saying "They're up all over town."

...And at this moment my life was changed once again - this time because I came to realize the power of the web. The web can make the world seem big and small at the same time.

Nowadays, I get more email than I can answer, but I am very grateful to those people write to thank me for my work, or who encourage me to keep following my dream of bootmaking. As my web development skills have improved I've tried to add features, such as Book of Bootnik Poetry, The Guest Boot Page and the Bulletin Board, all of which allow other folks to take an active part in this cowboy boot web page.

All along, my web page has given me a place for introspection and self-expression. Through it I learn all sorts of things...and I meet all sorts of people...online, and sometimes even in-person. And in part, this website is a chronicle of my own journey towards becoming a bootmaker. As you can tell from reading my web log, I'm making some headway towards fulfilling my dream.

It'll take lots more hard work, lots more learning. But maybe the most important thing I've learned so far is that the first and most crucial step towards fulfilling your dream is to have one in the first place.