Original poem by James Grafton Rogers, including extra verse by George A. H. Fraser, from "A Golden Treasury," James Grafton Rogers, posted in thread 13471, 14 Mar '03, Favorite Cowboy Songs, Second Edition: Old Dolores

Also posted in that thread is Rogers "Double-Breasted Mansion," also from his "A Golden Treasury."

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Thread #13471   Message #623061
Posted By: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
07-Jan-02 - 09:43 PM
Thread Name: Favourite Cowboy Songs-Second Edition
Subject: Lyr Add: THE TOWN OF OLD DOLORES

Just been re-reading parts of Katie Lee's "Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle." The book with its rich collection of songs and stories is woven around a search for Dolores, a village that has completely disappeared, but was located southeast of Santa Fé in the Ortiz Mts. of the old Ortiz grant. The Santa Fé Trail passed close by.
I am looking for James Grafton Rogers' 1912 original of the song, "THE TOWN OF OLD DOLORES," pub. much later in "A Golden Treasury," by the University Club of Denver. Does anyone have or know of a copy?
I still have a little piece of land there, with the old mine my grandfather worked for a time. Lots of searching was done for a lode in those hills, but profits were few. No rich ores have ever been found in that type of volcanic emplacement, but gem quality turquoise once was plentiful in the old Tiffany and other claims. The area's mining is dead. Large pseudo-pueblo homes built by rich football-players, chip moguls, etc., are encroaching on the picturesque area. Large quantities of turquoise were mined there by the Indians in pre-Spanish days, much of it carried to the Valley of Mexico and the Aztecs (verified by analyses).

The version by Utah Phillips is posted in Part one of this thread, Here
Katie Lee gives part of the 1st verse, with music, slightly different from the way Utah sang it. I would like to see the version printed by Rogers. Katie Lee says only three recordings were made with Rogers' consent; by Utah Phillips, Oscar Brand and Katie Lee.
In following up the story of Dolores, Katie Lee scattered additional lines from the song on several pages, some lines different from or additional to those posted by Susan A_R in '99 from Phillips' recording:

All the strings of peppers hung
On the'dobes in the sun,
Blazin' red as some young puncher's new bandana,
And the scented smoke that came
From the piñon wood aflame
Smelt like incense to Our Lady of Mañana;
The scarlet lips, the clinkin' chips!
The drinks Ramon poured for us!

There us't to stand a town,
Where a crick come tumbling down,
From a mesa where she surely hadn't ought'a.
And if there's any little well
Down inside the Gates of Hell
Why I know the boys have named it, Old Dolores.

The greaser girls that fool
On the plaza - in the cool
There was one, I us't to meet her by a willer,
But the friendly lights are dark,
And the coyote's lonesome bark
Is the only music now in Old Dolores.

But the 'dobe walls are gone
And the goat bells in the dawn
Ain't a jinglin' in the streets of Old Dolores.
And the coyote's lonesome bark
Is the only music now in Old Dolores.

Lines gathered from pp. 96, 97, 183-185; I hope in the right order.

If there was a waterfall in these hills, it was pre- pre-historic. There are wells, OK for cattle, but not fit for human consumption because of the mineral content.