Goodbye, Ole Paint: The Singing Cowboys of the Real Old West

Morris Ranch, Texas once rivaled Palo Alto corporate campuses in its scope. Home to 200 mares, 10 stallions, a schoolhouse, a post office, a smithy, a general store, a roller mill, a pharmacy, a mile-long racetrack, and a jockey's quarters, it was a state-of-the-art facility for breaking, breeding, and training thoroughbred horses. The New York family who had bought the property at twenty-five cents an acre in 1856 no doubt saw massive returns. That is, until the turn of the century heralded crack-downs on the horse racing industry. By 1931, the property was sold off. By '68, Morris Ranch was a ghost town.

Today, all that remains is ruins and mythology. Such is the destiny of the …show more content…
These songs played as much a role in the creation of the singing cowboy archetype as did wide-brimmed hats and bolo ties.

Consider “Goodbye, Ole Paint,” a song written for jaw harp by freed slave and Morris Ranch cowhand, Charley Willis. According to family history, Willis kept a steady companion in a horse called Old Paint. That truth lends credence to the heartbreak embedded within:

In the middle of the ocean there grows a green …show more content…
It's a testament to the power of music that through Hollywood hullabaloo survives the story of a black cowboy leaving his love, whether she be pony or maiden.

In 1871, Charley Willis and Old Paint traversed over 1000 miles from Georgetown, TX, through OK, KS, and CO, landing in Cheyenne, WY. Their route: The Chisholm Trail, a vein that wound from Red River Station, TX to the shores of the Smoky Hill River and the Kansas Pacific Railway. Ranchers from as far south as the Rio Grande used it to drive cattle to Joseph G. McCoy's stockyards in Abilene, KS. There, the meat would go to Eastern markets.

In a 1952 Columbia Records release, “The Old Chisholm Trail”, Gene Autry sings:

Oh, it's bacon and beans most every day
I'd as soon be a-eatin' prairie