How often at night when the heavens are bright with the light from the glittering stars, have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed if their glory exceeds that of ours. – from the song “Home on the Range.”
One of Wyoming’s legendary boom-bust ghost towns is Jeffrey City.
This little burg sits in the far southeast corner of Fremont County and is famous because its population zoomed to over 4,000 people for a very short time around 1982. It was the uranium mining capital of the state. Today, fewer than 150 people live there.
Prior to that boom, the area was known as Home on the Range and it even boasted a Post Office by that name. Postmistress was my old friend (the late) Beulah Peterson Walker.
Although I never knew for sure, I always thought her town was named after the famous song, which many folks always wanted to see become the official song of Wyoming.
Ragtime Cowboy Joe
Not to be confused with “Ragtime Cowboy Joe,” which is the official song of the University of Wyoming. Or “Wyoming Where We Belong” by Amy and Annie, those ubiquitous Cheyenne songstresses.
According to the Internet, our original state song is “Wyoming” by C. E. Winter. Sorry I did not know that off the tip of my tongue. Maybe we should make “Home on the Range” our state song? Too late, Kansas beat us to it. Are there even antelope in Kansas?
Which brings me to my subject, this wonderful song!
The things that I thought were unique about the song “Home On The Range” were that it reminded me of Wyoming and that it could have been the theme song for my late friend Beulah's hometown.
Once the uranium boom ended in 1983 and the 4,000 people who used to populate Jeffrey City went away, there was a movement to change the name of the place back to Home on the Range. It was a good idea then and it is a good idea now. With uranium mining starting to come back, it will be interesting if this movement gets any traction again soon.
But lately, the concept of “home on the range” has a lot more to do with people moving to Wyoming than it does with a place or a song.
A few decades ago, Wyoming was the fastest-growing state in the union, according to the census, percentage-wise.
Now back to my story about the song: When it came to the song “Home on the Range,” my ideas changed, when actor Wilford Brimley approached the microphone during his speech at a Lander One-Shot Antelope banquet some years ago. Without much fanfare, the grizzled movie veteran stepped up to the front of the audience.
Brimley Was Inspiring
The crowd readied itself for some sage advice or wicked humor from the actor. But not this time. Brimley, a real ex-rancher (who retired to Greybull before his death) had talked sincerely of his earlier lives as an unsuccessful sheep rancher in Idaho.
He had known hardship and he appreciated the good life he was enjoying now. He had been emotionally moved by his experience in the Wind River Mountain Mountains and the vast Red Desert.
It prompted him to recite some words, which moved the audience immensely.
Brimley recited four lesser-known verses of the song “Home On The Range” as a poem. Those verses are as follows:
Oh, I love these wild flowers in this dear land of ours, the curlew I love to hear scream, and I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks that graze on the mountaintops green.
Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand flows leisurely down to the stream, where a graceful white swan goes gliding along like a maid in a heavenly dream.
Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free, the breezes so balmy and light, that I would not exchange my home on the range for all the cities so bright.
Then I would not exchange my home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play; where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day.
Written By A Texan
Brimley’s performance caused me to wonder just where the song came from originally. The local library came up with the verses and some history.
A Texan named David Guion, who also wrote Carry Me Back To The Lone Prairie and The Yellow Rose of Texas, popularized the song in the 1920s. It has been called the Cowboy’s National Anthem. Few people ever get past the first verse.
Bill Sniffin can be reached at: Bill@CowboyStateDaily.com
