James Stewart lived in West Jordan, UT until he was five years old.  His family then moved to Vernal, UT and built a house up Dry Fork Canyon.  The High Uintah mountain range became his backyard.  Along with his three brothers and two sisters, the Stewart family camped, fished, hiked and attended mountain man rendezvous regularly.

As James and his brothers grew older, they began to do a lot of shooting and horseback riding.  They learned a lot about packing and became interested in cowboying.  Part of this interest in cowboying came through the fact that their dad was developing a business making hand-made, old-style saddles, tack and cowboy gear.  James’ brother Dan went to work for a rancher out in the Book Cliffs when he got married.  A short time later, James followed his example and went to work for the same ranch.

After working there for a time, James served a two-year misison for the LDS church in Porto Alegre, Brazil.  After returning from Brazil, it wasn’t long before he was back to cowboying in the Book Cliffs.  While working in the Book Cliffs, James met and married Carol Christensen.  They both worked for the ranch for a few years until James went to horseshoeing school in 1997 and started a farrier business in central and northern Utah.  While in the shoeing business, James found that he enjoyed doing blacksmith work, and started making various items out of iron.

In 2006, James met Steven Lee from new Mexico, who had a very successful blacksmithing business.  He encouraged James to do more blacksmithing and also gave James some valuable mentoring.

Today James is a skilled blacksmith.  He enjoys putting great detail into his work and developing artistic designs.  He also takes pride in producing a quality product.  These are all things he inherited from his father, who, along with James’ brothers, still operates the very successful Sawtooth Saddle Company in Vernal, UT.

Today, James lives in Sanpete County, UT near a town called Fountain Green.  He and Carol have a son and three daughters.  They also have four dogs, eight horses, one pony, two mules and two goats.  They stay busy as a family riding, shooting, packing, roping, hiking and climbing.  James likes to keep the spirit of the cowboy and mountain man alive in his family by doing these activities with them.