The Ranger's Lament

Description

"The Rangers Lament" (also known as "The Old Scout's Lament," "Texas Ranger's Lament," or "Come List to a Ranger") is a traditional American frontier ballad collected by John A. Lomax in his 1910 book Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. It appears in the Project Gutenberg edition you linked.The song is a nostalgic lament sung from the perspective of aging Texas Rangers and frontier scouts. It mourns the passing of the wild West—the days of buffalo hunts, beaver trapping, Indian fighting, and guiding settlers—replaced by railroads, farms, and peace. Key lines capture their sense of obsolescence: “Our race is almost run” and “our West, good-bye.” Historical Context: Texas Rangers, formed in the 1820s–1830s, were mobile volunteer forces protecting settlers from raids during the Republic of Texas era, Mexican-American War, and post-Civil War Indian Wars. They often operated outside regular armies (“never wore the blue”). By the 1880s–1890s, the frontier had largely closed: buffalo herds vanished, Native resistance ended, and settlement advanced. The ballad reflects this transition and the romantic “end of the frontier” myth around 1890–1910. Origins: Anonymous folk song passed orally among cowboys and scouts. Lomax gathered it from veterans, possibly at a Texas Ranger reunion. Like most in his collection, it has no single author and exists in variants.This ~19th-century ballad preserves the voices of frontiersmen witnessing their adventurous era fade into legend.

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The lyrics of this song are in the Public Domain. Music generated using AI. This auction example serves for testing purposes. All applicable rights reserved. Kaycee Ranch LLC.

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