The History of the Wade Saddle
Clifford Wade, whose family came west on the Oregon Trail, had a saddle made by an unknown maker, that his dad brought with him from the east. Tom Dorrance, who lived in Wallowa County, Oregon, cowboyed with Clifford and admired Clifford’s livestock handling ability and the saddle Clifford rode that he had inherited from his dad.
According to Dale Harwood, noted Idaho saddle maker, in 1939 Tom Dorrance took Clifford’s saddle to Hamley & Company Saddle Shop in Pendleton, Oregon. He had a new saddle made on a saddle tree copied from the tree in Clifford’s old saddle.
