“Lee's Ferry”
Description
"Come all you roving cowboys, bound on these western plains... We'll go back home again... We'll cross over Lee's Ferry, oh, and go back home this year." The cowhands agree that they will go home, but they grow old without ever returning
Notes
Lee's Ferry (named for Mormon pioneer John D. Lee) was at one time the only way to cross the Colorado River in Arizona. The region north and west of the river (the "Arizona Strip"), surrounded on two sides by river, and with desert to the west and hills to the north, was decent cattle country but very isolated. Hence this song.
For more about John D. Lee, very little of it good, see the notes to "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19] (character of John D. Lee)
References
- Ohrlin-HBT 37, "Lees' Ferry" (1 text, 1 tune)
- BI, Ohr047