by Gene Fowler 

WWBFJD? (What Would Benjamin Franklin Johnson Do?) 

In July 1847, an ailing Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sat up in the wagon that had carried him across the American frontier. He led a party of 72 wagons, carrying nearly 150 pioneers in search of religious freedom. According to Mormon history and legend, when Young first beheld the Salt Lake Valley, he decreed, “It is enough. This is the right place. Drive on.” 

In time, thousands of church members followed, settling in the valley that Young had seen in a vision after leaving Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1846. On the spot where Young said LDS faithful would “make the desert blossom like a rose,” arose the great city of Salt Lake. 

Today, a state park and living history museum known as This Is The Place Heritage Park sprawls over 450 acres on the eastern side of the Salt Lake Valley, where Brigham Young first glimpsed the faith’s future Zion. Some 50 replica buildings in the park include the recreated saddle shop of Mormon pioneer B. F. Johnson. A lively leathercraft artisan named Diamond Jim Davis greets visitors to the shop today, sharing Johnson’s history and demonstrating how folks crafted harness and other essential items from hides back in the day. He also spends time at the recreated saddlery crafting a wide range of leather items, many of them for the entertainment industry. We’ll get to that in a minute. 

Benjamin Franklin Johnson made the trek to the Salt Lake Valley in 1848, and became the first known saddler in Deseret, a term from the Book of Mormon that became an early name for the area. He soon was much in demand as a maker of harness and other leather goods, especially when gold-seekers bound for California passed through in dire need of pack saddles, which Johnson rigged with rawhide. Of course, there was no Tandy store or other supplier at the non-existent local mall; so, Johnson traded for deer and elk hides with the area’s Native Americans and bought cattle hides when he could find them. According to one source, he soaked, stretched and salted the hides in “Mexican fashion.” 

Having worked as a cabinet maker before trekking to the future state of Utah, he adapted on the western frontier and also served the growing community as a druggist. On Christmas Day, 1850, B. F. Johnson placed one of countless ads in The Deseret News, “to inform his friends and the citizens of Deseret generally that he is now prepared to furnish any article in the line of Saddlery needed in this market; Silver and Brass Plated Coach and Buggy Harness….Pack and Riding Saddles, Bridles, Martingales, Circingles, Trunks, Valises, Carpet Bags, Over Shoes, Sword Belts, and Holsters, and any other article of Cavalry rigging. Together with a general assortment of Drugs, Botanick and Patent Medicines, & c. & c., any of which he will sell at reduced prices for cash or produce. Also, wanted at his shop a few good Bear and Wolf Skins, at the sign of the Collar, in the 16^th ward.” 

Johnson’s recreated saddle shop was constructed with some $120,000 in 2005, the funds raised by an organization of his many descendants. At the dedication ceremonies, one of those descendants, Kathy Christofferson, thanked “Grandpa Johnson for leaving us his personal history.” She added, “Although [the shop] ably depicts an important aspect of pioneer life, it reminds us of much more than that. For all of us it is an example of determination, initiative, hard work and adaptability.” 

Like anyone who has achieved a distinctive level of proficiency in leatherwork, Diamond Jim Davis shares those sterling qualities with Benjamin Franklin Johnson. But first off, I know you’re wondering, just as I was, what’s the deal with this “Diamond” handle? 

“I wanted to be a world-famous magician,” chuckles Jim, graciously answering an inquiry he must have been asked a thousand times. “I was called Cowboy and Cardslinger at the restaurant where I performed magic tricks.” The Ace of Diamonds figured into the story and the name just kinda evolved. “It’s followed me forever,” he chuckles again. 

And the journey from magic man to leather artisan? “I needed a prop made – a leather cup,” says Jim. “I asked an old saddlemaker in Grantsville, Utah, about it but he had no idea how to make one. So, I made it myself. Then, I started making leather items for magicians and eventually, it branched out to others.” 

Aside from having had a Tandy kit as a kid, making neckerchief slides and other items in the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, a wallet or two in a junior high leather class, and then winning a prize at the fair for his first figural carving (a rabbit), the 55-year-old Diamond Jim is completely self-taught. 

“Books….books….books!” he exclaims when asked how he learned. “It was mostly Al Stohlman stuff. His Inverted Carving was one of my first books. I have since collected everything of his that I can find, including the mail-order course he had years ago.” 

Diamond Jim recalls that he did take one class from Tony Lair in Salt Lake City, about 20 years ago. “He was admiring a set of saddlebags I had made for the Tandy store,” he says. “He asked the manager who had made them. The manager pointed at me and Tony told me that it was some of the best geometric stamping he had ever seen. Needless to say, I was complimented. So, I asked him what the difference was between my work and his. His answer I have never forgotten.” 

“That table of leather,” Tony Lair replied. 

“In other words, time and practice are the answer,” adds Jim. “It was the most valuable advice I have ever received. So, full circle, crack the books and do it. Make mistakes. Learn from them. Practice, practice, practice!” 

Whatever you’re talkin’ about, leatherwork or underwater ballet dancing, ya can’t argue with that. 

And it’s clear to see, it’s paid off for Diamond Jim. “I specialize now in museum-grade replicas,” he notes. A lot of those replicas have appeared in television and film productions, like the intriguing Netflix and Amazon series The Chosen. “It’s a modern retelling of the New Testament,” explains Jim. “It puts the humanity back in Jesus. I’ve provided them with authentic-looking leather goods such as portmanteaus, bags and luggage, harness, halters, straps, lead lines, canteens and other drinking vessels. I’ve also done sandal repair for the show.” 

Jim was invited to visit the set and meet the series’ creator, co-writer and director Dallas Jenkins, which he notes is very unusual for a prop provider. When they met, Jenkins said, “Oh! You look like a leather man.” 

Other film and TV work—Diamond Jim seems to be on speed-dial with industry prop masters—includes creating leather containers, buckets and bags for Ephraim’s Rescue, Seventeen Miracles and other Latter-day Saints videos. He’s also made bags, equipment holders, sandals, Roman saddles, sword scabbards, knife sheaths and other odds and ends for such films as The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, and Age of the Dragons. 

A dozen or so years ago, he was asked to make a plague doctor’s mask for a production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. “I wanted to make it as historically accurate as possible,” Jim says, “so I researched the earliest uses of the mask that I could find. As a result, I modeled mine on the oldest known wood cut of the mask, which was dated 1656. I’ve made about 30 or 40 of them since. It’s a niche market. During the pandemic, I had to offer a disclaimer that it would not protect against COVID.” 

A violin case that Jim made really caught my eye. “It was an early piece,” he says, “one that marked my progression from amateur to professional, and it’s probably the oddest violin you’ll ever see. It was made with a piece of wood from the Mormon temple in Kirtland, Ohio.” On one side of the large leather case, Jim carved an impressive likeness of the temple. 

Examples of Diamond Jim’s museum pieces are housed in museums as far away as Australia and, closer to home, in San Diego, and the important Mormon historical site of Nauvoo, Illinois. His mochilas, or saddlebags, are in a Pony Express Museum in Wyoming, and the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum in Cedar City, Utah. 

His workshop in B. F. Johnson’s recreated saddlery is a leatherwork wonderland that represents 25 years of collecting tools. “I use every single one,” he says. “I got some from Tandy and some were donated. People pass by the Johnson Saddlery replica and say, hey I’ve got a leatherwork tool that belonged to my grandfather, and they’ll donate it to the park. I also have tools that were made by the park’s blacksmith.” 

Working with the public at This Is The Place has proven very rewarding for Diamond Jim. “We even have individuals come through who have been convicted of crimes and sometimes, when they get a taste of working with leather, it turns into a second chance for them. I enjoy that more than anything.” 

He sees signs of potential turmoil in the leather industry, however. “Ninety-five percent of hides are going to landfills,” he laments, “and there are fewer and fewer commercial tanneries in the U.S. Some that are left are getting too expensive for me, and I generally find that foreign tanneries produce a lower quality hide.” He adds that the major U.S. supplier that does provide his veg-tanned leather has been steadily declining in quality, but he hopes to avoid using chrome tanned. 

“We’ve got to keep these traditions alive, or they’re gone,” he adds. “In many ways, we’re in trouble. For example, the average age of plumbers today is 60. We’ve got to bring craftsmen back. That’s what I preach here at the heritage park. Our computers can’t fix everything.” 

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