News travels fast when a 126-year-old business decides to call it quits.
For Ogden-based Cross Western Wear, the phone has not stopped ringing.
"They just can't believe of all places it would be us," said Tony Cross, whose great-great-grandfather, C.W. Cross, opened the store in 1878. "They just take it for granted we're going to be around forever."
But fading sales and a struggling downtown location proved too much for the store that specialized in custom-made saddles, harnesses, Western clothing and cartridge belts.
"Our downtown is pretty dead," Cross said. "We don't have any foot traffic. My good-old customers will still drive downtown, but the new people don't know we're there."
And unlike a generation ago, Cross said, today's young people have pushed aside Western fashion when it comes to clothing trends.
"We've got the best cowboys and cowgirls right here," he said, "but you wouldn't know they were until they get to rodeo when they change their clothes to compete. They don't wear what they are."
The 10,000-square-foot store carried 50 brands of tack leather goods, 15 different boot lines and 10 brands of hats. The family tried to boost sales by turning to the Internet but failed to find a niche.
"We had a lot of products that we put on that," Cross said, "but we had to shut it down. It didn't do us any good."
C.W. Cross came to Utah at the age of 17 after completing a saddle and harness apprenticeship in England. After his death, his sons Charlie, Ike and Goog took over the business. Kenneth Cross, a grandson of C.W. Cross, purchased the store and ran the business with his wife, Beverly, before turning it over in the mid-1980s to his sons Tony and Craig.
A closeout sale will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Rick VanLeeuwen, who runs the Gift House, a nearby pawn and sporting goods shop, said his family has done business at Cross Western for years.
"I think it's a shame that a 126-year-old business is closing up," VanLeeuwen said. "There's nothing happening downtown. The businesses downtown are just gone. They're all just small like me, mom and pop stores, and we're slowly losing them one by one."
E-mail: danderton@desnews.com