Buckle up

Among several other contributions to Moorcroft's West Texas Trails Museum (WTTM) made by former rodeo bronc rider and rancher Fritz Rehbein, including the handsome speckled bull that hangs on the wall, is a complete rodeo buckle collection.

Rehbein has been adding Hesston belt buckles to the collection for many years, donating the 2023 work of art last week.

"It belongs here," he says.

As WTTM director Cindy Mosteller began modifying the position of existing buckles to make room for the newest addition, she spoke of her familiarity with many of the buckles in the Rehbein display:

"My family, being involved in rodeo and the national finals rodeo, I have several of them that my parents bought when we were young and brought them home to us, but I don't have the entire collection."

Every athlete who participates in rodeo is familiar with the Hesston buckles. The company is known for their haying equipment but, in 1974, the agricultural company created a simple belt buckle for their employees and best customers, displaying only the Hesston name.

Today, this first buckle is highly sought by serious collectors as there were only 15,000 produced. After collaborating with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) in 1975, today's buckles have evolved to feature both an adult and a youth version and depict more elaborate artwork.

The retired rider had not received one of the '74 buckles when they first came out, but received one as a gift from someone whose name now escapes him. He also remembers another 1974 buckle that was going for a dollar, "My son had one in his hand at a yard sale, but it looked so damned cheap, he didn't buy it...It's $1000 now. They didn't know what they had."

This is not the first exhibition of this collection Rehbein has purchased over the years. He recalls a family who were devastated by an accident that killed the parents in Baker, MT several years ago.

"They were building a big wall around the yard and a big wind came up and blew that wall over on them and killed them. When the kids got home from school, part of the folks were laying on the side of the road. They had a benefit for it and I donated this whole set. The mother-in-law bought that set and I bought another set."

His daughter had this collection and lost it in a fire, so, "I bought another set for her, too."

Rehbein's last rodeo was the Old Timers' Rodeo in New Underwood, SD, in 1977. He was 48 years old.

"I found out two things – you lose that bounce and the ground gets awful damn hard," he says.

Next year's 2024 buckles will make up 50 years of these fasteners on display at the West Texas Trail Museum. Mosteller looks forward to accepting the 50th anniversary buckle from Rehbein.

Young and old, local and out-of-towners are encouraged to drop in and visit this and many other interesting and wonderful artifacts of the past donated by local families with names carried on in Moorcroft and beyond.