Watsonatta Western World: Serving The Horse and The Horse’s Boss For 37 Years
Story by Sam Calhoun
“I’ve been from Maine to Florida and I’ve never seen anything like this,” commented a happy customer from Key West finishing her purchase at Watsonatta Western World last week.
It’s difficult to imagine what a person living in Key West would do with an authentic fur coat, but that’s what she wanted and that’s what Darrel sold her. She left happy—a phenomenon that has happened every day at Watsonatta Western World, located at 711 West King Street in Boone, for the past 37 years.
Darrel Watson has been there for every smile.
As the owner of Watsonatta Western World, Darrel Watson, 59, has had a front row seat to King Street for almost four decades, selling cowboy boots, hats, caps, men’s and lady’s clothes, leather coats, genuine furs, purses, leather handbags, saddlebags, belts, belt buckles and some of his own designs.
“We sell everything for the horse and the horse’s boss,” said Darrel. “Nothing cheap. We specialize in quality. Everything’s the real thing.”
Darrel will be the first to tell you that he doesn’t deal with all the companies that want to sell him their merchandise—he deals with the companies that offer merchandise he wants to sell.
When those companies don’t have exactly what Darrel wants, or they have something that’s unique but that needs some tweaking, Darrel designs his own merchandise or takes an existing product and makes it better. It’s this attention to the one-of-a-kind find that keeps customers filing through Watsonatta’s doors. It’s his survival technique.
“He loves anything different,” said Ellen Watson, 28-year employee of Watsonatta and Darrel’s wife. “He loves anything different, because he designs everything different. You can’t copy him.”
Whether he’s taking a western jacket and adding some new flair, taking a pair of cowboy boots and giving them more character, producing a one-of-a-kind belt buckle, or designing his own authentic fur coats from the laces up, Darrel is always critiquing the clothing of others, attempting to make the items better suit his taste.
“It’s just because I like different things,” he said. “I like nice things—nice boots, nice coats. I like it to look better so it will sell better.”
Darrel is completely self-taught and comes up with all of his own ideas.
Born on Beech Mountain in 1947, Darrel spent nine years in Charlotte after graduating from high school. While in the Queen City, he worked in an advertising company, eventually meeting a couple of guys who played music. He began to manage their band.
“They played Beatles, Rolling Stones and that sort of thing,” remembered Darrel, who guided the group through the Charlotte nightclub circuit for roughly three years.
After the band disbanded, Darrel followed another passion—horses. Darrel established Timberlake Farms in Charlotte where he offered boarding for horses, horse sales and trail riding. But after a couple of years, Darrel had had enough of city life.
“The mountains brought me back,” he said. “I’m not a big city boy.”
Back in the High Country, Darrel had been eyeing the property where the present-day Melanie’s Food Fantasy is located. Soon after, he opened Watsonatta Western World there on September 20, 1969. After six months, though, he moved across the street to the present-day location of Watsonatta.
Around that same time, Darrel was also continuing his passion for horses—a passion that dated from having a pet horse when he was a young man in the mountains—and created a horse barn in Foscoe called the Paradise Ranch. At that ranch, a young woman from Salisbury came looking for a job in the mid-1970s after her job at Camp Yonahlossee ended for the winter. Her name was Ellen.
A year later in 1976, the two began to date. And on September 16, 1978, they married. She began working at Watsonatta and Darrel sold the Paradise Ranch to spend more time around his budding business and new wife.
Today, Darrel and Ellen have two children together—Brooke, 23, and Deara, 25.
And that business is still budding.
Serving customers from Maine to Miami, the Watsons also serve a high number of local customers as well—with the only store of its kind this side of Charlotte.
“We love our customers,” said Ellen. “Everyone talks about these awful Florida customers, but we don’t have any! All our customers are wonderful!”
“We really do appreciate our customers. We have a lot of good, loyal, local customers and we’ll hope they’ll keep coming here. We enjoy them coming here—most of them are like family. A lot just stop by everyday to say hello,” said Darrel. “It’s a down-home family here—country is spoken here, cowboy is spoken here.”
Darrel said that a lot of out-of-town customers shop at Watsonatta once per year, buying what they need to last until the next time they come back.
And while Darrel is absent from the store on occasion, Ellen is always there, managing the three other employees and helping the customers.
“We work better when the boss isn’t around,” laughed Ellen.
When not at work, Darrel is tending to the herd of cattle he keeps on his local farm or spending time with his many family members that still dwell in the High Country. If Ellen ever gets a day off, you can find her on a horse—she’s got two.
After 37 years, what’s next? Well, both Darrel and Ellen want to stay in Boone, keep the store open and serve their host of loyal customers—perhaps for the next 37 years.
“I just love Boone,” added Ellen.
Watsonatta Western World is located at 711 West King Street in Boone. Watsonatta is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and on Saturday; on Friday, the store is open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For more information, call 828-264-4540.
Graphics:
[Watsonatta 1.1] or [Watsonatta 1.2] or [Watsonatta 1.3] or [Watsonatta 1.4]
Darrel Watson, 37-year owner of Watsonatta Western World on King Street in Boone, stands beside his wife of 28 years, Ellen, amid his shop’s selection of western wear. Photo by Sam Calhoun
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