In his book, which by the way contains the transcriptions and music for 73 cowboy songs with notes, Glenn Ohrlin stated that this was one of the earliest songs he learned. He says, "This is the tune as Powder River Jack sang it, though I may have the words a bit different. "Platonia is spelled several different ways; Margaret Larkin reports it as "Plantonio," and I have heard it as "Patonio." The story runs about the same in most versions." He does not mention authorship, though many of the songs in his book are attributed.

I also have Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's Songs of the Range, Chart Music Publishing House, 1937. This book does not list authorship either, only "Arr. by Powder River Jack Lee." The differences are indeed minor, as Glenn suggests ~~ typical are Lee's use of red devils and redskins where Ohrlin uses Indians, swung his head North instead of headed him north ~~ perhaps the greatest change is I have rode many ponies, I've held many reins in Lee's version, while Ohrlin says Oh, many good horses I've handled the reins. In other words, no differences worth quibbling over. In my opinion, you can put the Slim Clark version linked to by Gene in the same category, with few important differences.

Now a version I have that does have quite a few differences is Patanio, The Pride Of The Plains, Hank Snow, 1952, from the Thesaurus Transcriptions, with authorship attributed to Harry McAuliffe.

I have the music from both Ohrlin and Lee, in addition to the Snow recording, which I could transcribe. In the past, I have posted recordings and sheet music on my web site, but often these seem to go unnoticed, so I will only post these upon request. Now I don't mean to say that is true in every case, or that I am unwilling or less than eager to post them, just that I don't see a reason for it if no one wants them.