Saddle making celebrated

For the Record-Times
Posted 3/14/18

WHEATLAND — Wyoming author and historian Kathy Muller Ogle shared her research about master saddlemaker Rudy Mudra with members and guests of the Platte County Historical Society on Feb. 27.

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Saddle making celebrated

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WHEATLAND — Wyoming author and historian Kathy Muller Ogle shared her research about master saddlemaker Rudy Mudra with members and guests of the Platte County Historical Society on Feb. 27.  
Ogle’s research focused on the changes to saddlemaking from 1879 to 1966, many of which Rudy Mudra contributed to the craft. Research for her project was made possible through a Lola Homsher research grant from the Wyoming State Historical Society.
Ogle grew up in Sheridan, and as a child had a Rudy Mudra saddle, which sparked her interest in the saddlemaker.  After retiring from a career as a groundwater hydrologist, she decided to explore more about Mudra’s life and found that his influence on leather carving and saddle making continues today.

Ogle was especially interested details of Mudra’s personal life that have been lost.  She said,
“Rudy and his wife, Edith, didn’t have any children and, as a result, there aren’t family photos or diaries to look back on,” Ogle said. She added that by all accounts Mudra was a respected saddlemaker and had an outgoing personality.  
Mudra was born in 1870 in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was a leather craftsman and he most likely learned his skills from him. Mudra completed two years of high school in Lincoln, and then began his apprenticeship as a saddle maker. He became more proficient as years went by and eventually worked for saddlemakers in Kansas, Missouri and Montana.
In 1934 he and Edith moved to Sheridan where he opened Rudy Mudra’s Saddle Shop, an enterprise he operated until his retirement in 1959. Mudra and his wife retired to San Clemente, California, where he died in 1966.
An unexpected part of the program was a short talk by Wheatland’s newest business owner, Eric Hannig, a saddle maker who is opening Cactus Ranch on Gilchrist Street in late March. Hannig added to the program by sharing information about he got started in the business, as well as other details about the craft of leathermaking and saddles.