According to Paul Gifford's source, Roy Hoffmayer of Atlanta, Mich., the bawdy poem was known to lumberjacks in northern Michigan as early as 1918.

That makes sense, since Robert Service published the original version in 1907, and it quickly became popular.

YouTube once had a wonderful video of Service reciting his own poem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zESPCjTN-6k

but all I get now is a black screen.