This 1939 three-piece paper Cracker Jack Cowboy Puzzle was designed by C. Carey Cloud. The sections, printed on card stock paper, are approximately 2 3/4". The horse pieces are about 1 9/16" tall, and the cowboys piece is 7/8" tall. The object of the puzzle is to arrange the pieces so that the end result is two cowboys riding two horses, but "no cutting or bending" is allowed. Can you mentally shift the pieces around so that both cowboys are atop two horses? It looks easy, but looks can be deceiving. 

The inspiration for Cloud's prize design clearly seems to have been a puzzle originally invented by the great American puzzlist Sam Loyd, "the undisputed puzzle king of the United States." According to Jerry Slocum and Jack Botermans' Puzzles Old and New: How to Make and Solve Them (text by Carla van Splunteren and Tony Burrett), Loyd created thousands of puzzles from the mid-nineteenth century until his death in 1911.

"P. T. Barnum's Trick Mules"
from Slocum and Botermans' Puzzles Old and New

Loyd sold his puzzle to P. T. Barnum, who marketed it as "P. T. Barnum's Trick Mules." It was printed on a card to be cut into the three pieces. Millions of the cards were sold, and supposedly Loyd earned a fortune--$10.000--in just a few weeks. According to Puzzles Old and New, "In 1872, Barnum advertised the puzzle in the Advance Courier together with a warning which stated: 'Unprincipled parties have infringed upon this patent puzzle. Busines men are cautioned against using or paying for cards not having the imprint of the inventor, S.LOYD.'"

Eventually, however, variations appeared on various trade cards, postcards, and the like. Later versions showed such subjects as cowboys riding bulls and jockeys on horses. 

On Martha Stewart's television program, Jerry Slocum showed one of the puzzles with witches riding cats, which appears in another of his books. Cloud even copyrighted a Cracker Jack puzzle in 1940 called the Trapeze Puzzle in 1940 based on the same concept.

Have you figured out the puzzle? Tried every combination? Give up? If you are sure you can't solve the puzzle, if you really want to see how it is done, click here for the solution.

Thanks to Fred Joyce for the Cowboy Puzzle scan.