The Collector: Happy trails led to Roy Rogers collection

As a kid growing up in the early 1960s, Richard Van Hook loved cowboys, including the Lone Ranger and Sky King, but he especially admired Roy Rogers.

Once while on vacation with his family, he spotted a sign for the Roy Rogers Museum. He begged his dad to stop.

“Dad said we didn’t have time,” Van Hook said.

Twenty years later, while on vacation with his wife and two daughters, he saw a sign for the museum in Victorville, California.

“I decided to stop,” he said.

He purchased two albums and a collection was born.

Now, Van Hook’s basement in his Stevens County home overflows with posters, prints, records and toys – all bearing the visage, signature or iconic ranch brand of the famous “King of the Cowboys.”

In one corner, a child’s desk and matching mirror have a place of honor. The mirror features a pistol and the Double R Bar ranch brand, while the desk has a rearing Trigger on the front.

Van Hook discovered the set in an antique shop in Wallace.

“I’d never heard or seen of anything like this,” he said.

He later found an advertisement from 1949 that featured a children’s bedroom set in the exact style of the desk and mirror.

Rogers was idolized by boys across the nation and much of Van Hook’s collection contains items marketed to kids.

There’s a tiny pair of chaps, a set of toddler cowboy boots and a pair of “Boot-sters” that for $1.98 turned any pair of shoes into cowboy boots when pulled over a kid’s shoes.

He even found a child-size version of “Nellybelle,” the jeep from Rogers’ TV show.

“I bought it on an online charity auction,” he said.

Of course, Rogers’ horse Trigger is represented in several versions, from figurine to stick horse, to rocking horse and even a vintage spring horse.

Trigger wasn’t the only animal star of Rogers’ show – his faithful German shepherd Bullet was a family pet turned show dog. Van Hook owns two Stern Plush replicas of the famous dog.

Kids with a musical bent pined for a guitar just like the one their cowboy hero strummed and Van Hook has several of them. A rare yellow model leans against one of his favorite items – a child’s pony saddle.

Another favorite acquisition is a pair of pants and a shirt worn by the star.

“I got them in a back room auction from the Roy Rogers Museum,” he said.

A cowboy is nothing without his gun. Van Hook has everything from cap pistols with holsters to four Daisy BB guns.

He pointed to a shiny gold pair of holstered cap pistols in a display case.

“You couldn’t buy those,” he said. “You had to win them at movie theaters.”

Van Hook has six albums full of lobby cards advertising many of the more than 100 films in which the singer/actor appeared.

“The cards came in sets with a title card and some scene cards,” Van Hook said. “I have several complete sets.”

He also has 20 glass slides that were shown to advertise the next movie while the reels were being changed.

And the TV show that launched much of the merchandise?

“There are 99 episodes and I own them all,” Van Hook said.

“Goodbye, good luck, and may the Good Lord take a liking to you,” he said, recited Rogers’ signature closing words,

He’s also listened to all the albums he’s purchased and is especially fond of Rogers’ yodeling.

“ ‘Jingle Bells’ is my favorite.”

Mugs, lunchboxes, Christmas ornaments, pocket knives and watches mingle with items from the restaurant chain that bears Rogers’ name.

But there’s one special memento that Van Hook takes with him everywhere he goes. He pushed up a sleeve to reveal the tattoo he got following Roy Rogers’ death in 1998.

“Happy Trails,” it reads beneath the Double R Bar brand.

For Van Hook, the collection serves as a reminder of the way the world used to be.

“It brings back childhood memories of a simpler time,” he said. “A better time, as far as I’m concerned.”