Could have sworn I sent this in years ago. It's from the Phil Thomas collection and in his Songs of the Pacific Northwest. The places are along the US/Canada border in the Okanagan/Okanogan country.

The Banks of the Similkameen

It was one Sunday morning I bid Grand Forks adieu
To beat my way to Oroville, a place that once I knew
Over ties and railway crossings I beat my weary way
Until I met a maiden at the close of one hot day.

Well, good eve, good eve, fair maiden, my money does me no good
If it hadn't a been for the coyotes, I'd a stayed out in the woods.
You're welcome, welcome stranger, although our home is plain
We never have turned a stranger out on the banks of the Similkameen.

She took me to her mother's house and treated me quite well
Her hair in dark brown ringlets about her shoulders fell
I tried to paint her beauty but true it was in vain
For perfect was the Orovoille girl on the banks of the Similkameen.

I asked her to marry me, she said it ne'er could be
She said she had a lover and he lived in BC
She said she had a lover and true she would remain
Until her came to claim her on the banks of the Similkameen.

So adieu, adieu, fair maiden, I never shall see no more
I'll never forget your kindness nor the cottage by the shore
Adieu, adieu, fair maiden, we'll drink to the flowing stream
We'll drink a health to the Oroville girl on the banks of the Similkameen.

Since posting this I've come across three more versions, some close, some not so close, to this one. In one "Similkameen" (the river outside my door) become "the Kettle Stream", the Kettle River a couple of hundred clicks to the east. All these versions share the same tune, which is definitively NOT the usual (not nearly so good, in fact).

Jon Bartlett