The story goes, his dad learned it from the old gunfighter who also taught him how to shoot. The old gunfighter ran with Billy the Kid and a few others and had been all over New Mexico and elsewhere. A bunch of cowboys are said to have written the tune and the lyrics. My dad saw the gunfighter just once and, though he knew his dad was good, the gunfighter, his teacher, was "slick" as dad put it, which is mighty high praise coming from him.

Zuni Mountain Pool

I am a Texas cowboy
Right from the Texas Range
My trade is cinching saddles and pulling bridle reins
Though I am a youngster, yet,
I claim I am no fool.
I've had three year's experience
With the Zuni Mountain Pool

The top hand of this outfit
Was a Mexican from the South
The only bad fault that he had
Was shooting off his mouth.
One night when he was drinking
He shot it off too much
And got his throat cut in a knife fight
With a cowboy we call "Ducth."

A cook for this here outfit
Juan Ramos was his name
He didn't speak good English
But he got here just the same.
While he was making bicuits
You bet he took things cool
A'cooking for this outfit,
The Zuni Mountain Pool.

There was a kid in the outfit
The boys all called him "Mice."
Not that he was Chinese
Or ever had "et" mice.
One day while pouring syrup
From a keg into a bowl
From the keg into the dish
Three big, fat mice did roll!

There was a town called "Coolidge"
Eight miles from Big Divide
Of a summer evening,
To Coolidge we would ride
And there tank up on rotgut
'til the all of us was full
And there we spent our forty a month
From the Zuni Mountain Pool.

Note: Dad says Coolidge was really nine miles and it was named after a local guy long before there was a President Coolidge. Also, there are more verses, these are just the ones he can remember.

Thanks,

kat

A

Also, dad says there were bigger cow outfits who would "pool" together and hire a bunch of cowboys to work together.