Methinks yer memory is failing, Wolfgang. No Pokegama Bears in Rise Up Singing, or in the index at the University of Tennessee, or the Library of Congress and Levy sheet music collections. The tune is "Sweet Betsy from Pike," and even THAT isn't in RUS. Can anybody post the lyrics to this gem? Art's notes say:

It was written by Frank Hasty in 1874 for an anniversary of the town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Pokegama Lake is a very wide area of the upper Mississippi River. The bears of the area could be real problems for the lumbering crews in the pine woods. (And the lumberjacks could be a real problem for the bears!)

-Joe Offer-