One of our most prized items of horse tack is our US Pack saddle.

In the Tack Rooms web pages are details of our pack saddles restoration. You can image our pleasure when Gene Groves emailed us this image.

Gene says "I noticed  you stated that you only had the one (image) ever emailed to you.  Managed to find a few of the photos of cavalry items from the museum at Columbus, New Mexico.

This was the site of Ft. Furlong and the staging area for the 1916 Punitive Expedition in Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa.

Thought that it might be of use for reference as they do have some of the type that you have beautifully restored, from a museum in Columbus, New Mexico and another period photo from the Houston Tracy Jr. collection."

We also received this email from Richard Bradley "I saw your articles on the US pack saddle.  I have owned (now in the possession of USNPS at Presidio of SF) what I believe is the part of the system you appear to be missing, which is the "aparejo" or the large leather double bag, stuffed with straw to fit the animal in use, having a wide leather "crupper" -actually heavy strap which passed around the animal's hindquarters under the tail. 

Over this went a canvas piece slightly smaller than the "aparejo", which had wood bars toward either end - read bottom - through which passed the heavy surcingle - a 2 part affair, unlike that for the saddle - which I think I see in your photo. 

What you have appears to be one of what might have been a number of different special purpose carriers.  This is rather a lot of guesswork on my part, as I have never seen detailed photos of the system in use, only at a distance on a pack train in Yosemite Nat Park just after the turn of the century.   My interest stems from a couple of projects I worked on for the Presidio of San Francisco in its transition to NPS management, their interest being in the patrols which originated there to patrol Yosemite & Sequoia Nat'l Parks.  Most people think of pack saddles as those miniature picnic bench affairs, so I was fascinated to see what must be admitted to be a rather obscure piece of cavalry tack".