A $25,000 hat? Here's the story of Milton Johnson, and the stories woven at Montecristi Hat Works in Santa Fe

A $25,000 hat? Here's the story of Milton Johnson, and the stories woven at Montecristi Hat Works in Santa Fe

Richard ColtharpEl Rito Media “She wears a necktie and a Panama hat.”  – Bob Dylan, Black Diamond Bay,” 1976 For more than half a century, in a modest little shop a couple of blocks off the Plaza in Santa Fe, Milton Johnson has been writing a story. He’s not writing it on a computer or even a 1940s Royal typewriter – although that would be closer to his style. Johnson’s story, with a cast of a thousand characters, is written on the heads of his …