The song appeared in Lomax, Cowboy Songs, 1910, as "Utah Carroll." In that version, the little girl's name is Varro and the scene is Mexico rather than New Mexico. The blanket's color is not stated- closer to what a cowboy would write, since it is the object, not the color, that attracts some cattle. The "red" has been added to some later versions.

In 1938, in the revised edition by Lomax and Lomax, the litle girl's name becomes Lenore and the blanket is red. A tune is added, possibly from F. C. Thorne, Fort Worth, Texas ("part of the song was given to the compiler" by him). A note is added that J. T. Shirley, of San Angelo, Texas, says that a cowboy on the Curve T Ranch, Schleicher County, Texas, wrote the song. There is no indication of where John Lomax got his text. Lomax and Lomax in the 1938 revision dressed up a number of the songs from the original 1910 edition, sometimes joining several versions, as in this case.

Singers such as Almeda Riddle (1953 recording linked above) changed the locale to New Mexico, but it remained Mexico in her later commercial version.

Large ranches in northern Mexico provided many of the cattle shipped through Texas to the northern plains to feed the herded Indians on the reservations, supply northern ranches, or to the railheads. American cowboys went to Mexico to gather and work the cattle north to add to the Texas and New Mexico herds. A Mexican locale for the song is most likely if the song originated in Texas.
The version of "Utah Carl" in Fife and Fife, Cowboy and Western Songs, refers to "the Mexicans far-off lands." Utah Carl seems to be a later name.

"Utah Carl" in Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, vol. 2, is fairly close to the Riddle, Lomax and Fife texts.