Songs of the Cowboy: The Camp-Fire Has Gone Out
Posted by: Chris Hails in Cowboy, Music, Wild West Add comments
A little song about the demise of the cowboy, just before the fun of July 4th.
Through the progress of the railroad our occupation’s gone;
So we put ideas into words, our words into a song.
First comes the cowboy; he is pointed for the west;
Of all the pioneers I claim the cowboys are the best;
You will miss him on the round-up; it’s gone, his merry shout, -
The cowboy has left the country and the camp-fire has gone out.There is the freighters, our companions; you’ve got to leave this land;
Can’t drag your loads for nothing through the gumbo and the sand.
The railroads are bound to beat you when you do your level best;
So give it up to the grangers and strike out for the west.
Bid them all adieu and give the merry shout -
The cowboy has left the country, and the camp-fire has gone out.When I think of those good old days, my eyes with tears do fill;
When I think of the tin can by the fire and coyote on the hill.
I’ll tell you boys, in those days old-timers stood a show, -
Our pockets full of money, not a sorrow did we know.
But things have changed now; we are poorly clothed and fed.
Our wagons are all broken and our ponies ‘most all dead.
Soon we will leave this country; you’ll hear the angels shout,
“Oh, here they come to Heaven, the camp-fire has gone out.”
Traditional, from Songs of the Cowboys, 1921
It’s possible that the words were written by Ben Arnold Connor, an old-time frontiersman and cowboy. He took credit for the song in his autobiography, Rekindling Campfires.
Yvonne Hollenbeck has written about this song - Ben Arnold Connor was her great grandfather. She comments here in her My Home on the Prairie column, and includes her grandmother’s comment on the poem and how it became a song.
