On the Trail of the Buffalo explained

"On the Trail of the Buffalo", also known as "The Buffalo Skinners" or "The Hills of Mexico", is a traditional American folk song in the western music genre. It tells the story of an 1873 buffalo hunt on the southern plains.[1] According to Fannie Eckstorm, 1873 is correct, as the year that professional buffalo hunters from Dodge City first entered the northern part of the Texas panhandle.[2] It is thought to be based on the song Canaday-I-O.[3]

According to extensive research carried out by Jürgen Kloss in 2010–2012, this song is one of the many variants of John B Freeman's "The Buffalo Song".[4]

"The Buffalo Skinners"

"The Buffalo Skinners" is an American folk song which first appeared in John Lomax's Cowboy Songs, and Other Frontier Ballads in 1910. The song tells of crew of men hired in Jacksboro, Texas to go buffalo hunting north of the Pease River :

The song goes through many verses telling a humorous tale of the trials and tribulations they find on the hunt. The next to the last verse tells of how the trip ended:

The last verse ends with:

"Boggus Creek"

Another early variant called "Boggus Creek", collected by W.P. Webb, was first published in 1923. Webb considered it a variant to "The Buffalo Skinners"[5] In "Boggus Creek" a group of cowboys are hired at the now abandoned cowtown at Fort Griffin, Texas, to work cattle in New Mexico:

In this variant, no one is killed but the song ends the same way, except instead of warning others about the "range of the buffalo" it says:

Recordings

Cultural references

The song is quoted by Fermilab News, in an article describing the nuclear research facility's herd of American bison.[7]

See also

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Carr, Prairie Nights to Neon Lights, p. 10: " "The Buffalo Skinners" tells of a buffalo hunting trip from Jacksboro to West Texas in 1873."
  2. Liner notes The Continuing Tradition,Volume 1. Folk-Legacy 1981
  3. Web site: Buffalo Skinners: Lyrics . 2008-02-09.
  4. Web site: Kloss . Jürgen . On The Trail Of The "Buffalo Skinners" (Part III) . Retrieved on 4 August 2014.
  5. Webb, "Miscellany of Texas Folk-Lore", pp. 55-56: "These given here have been obtained st first hand from the cowmen. They are interesting as variants to the songs collect by Mr. Lomax and others."
  6. Web site: Lomax III . John . John A. Lomax, Jr. (1907-1974): A Success in All He Did. . Association for Cultural Equity. Retrieved on 24 November 2014
  7. Web site: Fermilab News . 2008-02-09.