If you search the internet for "Bob Fletcher" or "Robert H. Fletcher", you will find several music sites or Cole Porter sites that note Bob Fletcher's poem being the basis of the song Don't Fence Me In. As my mother related the story to me, a man she referred to as a "song buyer" came through the Roundup, Montana area, and bought the rights to the poem from Bob Fletcher for $20. I have no other confirmation of the amount paid or how the deal was done, just my mom's memory of it. I recently saw an article in a local paper regarding a highway roadside marker with the poem, commemorating the author, Bob Fletcher. I have been looking through old issues of the paper to find it... I should have clipped it out. I think it included the original version that Fletcher wrote. I contacted the paper, but they don't recall writing it locally - may have been something they picked up on the news wire of local interest. If I find it, I'll add it here.

Alice in Montana