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Show COWBOY POETRY ABOUT UTAH For over one hundred years, rhymed, metered verse, written by and for cowboys about their unique, cultural group, has been in active oral circulation throughout the West. A number of these poems have gained such popularity that they have reached beyond their originally intended audience and are well-known in the larger American culture. Curley Fletcher's "The Strawberry Roan," Jack Thorp's "Little Joe, the Wrangler," D. J. O'Malley's "When the Work's All Done This Fall," and Gail Gardner's "Tying the Knots in the Devil's Tail" are among those cowboy poems that fit this description. One poem with Utah origins has become known both outside of the state and the region. That piece is Judge Fred Keller's "Blue Mountain," and according to a Utah State Historical Society manuscript written by Keller, this is the story of how the song came to be. The title, "Blue Mountain," came from a mountain of the same name, located in southeastern Utah near the town of Monticello, a remote Mormon ranching community established in 1887. At about 7000^ Blue Mountain is covered with huge pinions, junipers, sagebrush and blue stem grasses and its real claim to fame is that "on an otherwise naked slope... spruce trees grow in the outline of a [blazed] horse's head." In 1919, following graduation from the University of Utah Law School and discharge from World War I military duty, Fred Keller and his young wife moved to Monticello. This small community was primarily composed of Mormon farmers, ranchers and businessmen as well as itinerant cowboys. The cowboys made sporadic visits to town during the spring, summer and fall, and spent a lot of time during the winter "riding the chuck line" i.e. moving from one ranch to the next, looking for a free meal or bed. A few years after his arrival, Keller was asked to serve on the local committee that organized the annual "Old Folks Day," a nineteenth century Mormon celebration that took place in nearly every Utah community and was initiated to honor the original pioneer settlers. The Old Folks Day agenda always included a variety show, presented by local performers. Keller, who had chosen to make Monticello his home because of the town's frontier flavor, decided to commemorate the area's cowboy culture by writing a song for the occasion "composed of local cowboy lore." Keller wrote the words to the song and his friend, Tom Evans, helped him fit it to music as "together we made some variations to suit my lyrics from an old Texas cowboy song which I think bears the title 'Bound Down in the Walls of Prison.' " For the performance, Keller dressed as a cowboy and with the help of a cowboy friend, Pat Adams, sang a duet to a delighted crowd. In Keller's words, our audience was familiar with the characters and life which I hoped the song would commemorate. They liked it and I have some satisfaction from 20 Cowboy Poetry From Utah |
