Hawken Horse - Range Rider Lyrics

There's an old trapper who's spends his time
Living way up past the timberline
His eyes are wild and his beard is white
Some say he's the last of a dying kind

He hunts for grizz eats 'em to the bones
And turns their fur into winter clothes
He had a Ute wife God rest her soul
Now he lives up here all alone

And he says
Hey range rider
I'm the reason these mountains are tame
Hey range rider
No paper ever printed my name

He's got a jagged scar on his left elbow
Where he took a stone point Arikara arrow
He was with Jed Smith when the company sold
And rendezvoused where the Green River flows

Now he talks to himself and he talks to the birds
About the weather and the world and old rumors
Like fur prices and Gettysburg
As he scrapes buckskins and the fire burns

And he says
Hey range rider
I'm the reason these mountains are tame
Hey range rider
No paper ever printed my name

When spring rolls in I ride up his way
Just to sit by his fire and pick his old brain
About ranches and wars over open range
In the distance you can hear the rumble of a train

Hey range rider
I'm the reason these mountains are tame
Hey range rider
No paper ever printed my name