‘Home on the Range’
Cheryl Unruh
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
I slammed on the brakes.
A sign along U.S. Highway 36 near the tiny town of Athol pointed the way to the “Home on the Range” cabin.
“Hang on. We have to see that!” I told Dave as I made the sharp right turn.
When her book, “The Kansas Guidebook for Explorers” was published last year, Marci Penner told me that the “Home on the Range” cabin was the one place she thought every Kansan ought to visit.
For some reason, I had pictured this cabin near the Colorado border, so I hadn’t penciled it in on this trip. But what a nice surprise — and it was only nine miles away: eight north and one west.
The last mile was a narrow road that took us past milo fields rich with autumn colors. Where the road curved, we saw a family of turkeys slip through a barbed-wire fence.
The small, rustic log cabin is on private property. Luckily, the landowners are willing to share this treasure, as was the black and white dog who rushed to greet us.
According to a brochure available inside the cabin, Dr. Brewster Higley was born in Ohio, received his medical degree in Indiana, and eventually homesteaded here in Smith County, in 1871.
That brochure suggests that Higley wrote most of the verses of a poem he called “My Western Home” during the autumn of 1872. He then placed the manuscript inside a book. The next spring, a guest found the poem in the book and reportedly proclaimed, “Why Doc, that’s plum good!”
Higley showed the poem to Dan Kelley, a local composer, who came up with a tune. “My Western Home” was introduced at a community dance in April of 1873.
The song was passed around and altered and the names of the songwriters became lost.
President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his fondness for the tune in 1932 and soon it became a hit on the radio.
In 1934, an Arizona couple, who claimed to have written the song as “My Arizona Home,” sued broadcasting and publishing companies for copyright infringement.
During the legal scuffle, documentation was found in the Kirwin Chief newspaper which indicated that Dr. Higley had written the words more than 30 years before the Arizona couple’s copyright had been registered.
“Home on the Range” was adopted by the Kansas Legislature as our official state song in 1947.
Dave and I visited Higley’s cabin on a quiet October day. Grass and trees were still mostly green on the banks of Beaver Creek.
From the cabin, Dr. Higley could probably hear the stream running at night. On the open land, he could gaze upon restless clouds, watch thunderstorms move in, and see the stars beaming their light down to the Kansas prairie. He wrote:
“How often at night when the heavens were bright/With the light of the twinkling stars/Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed/If their glory exceeds that of ours.”
Wandering around the property, under the shelter of the trees along Beaver Creek, the thought that entered my mind was how could he live here and NOT write “Home on the Range?”
Butterflies linger on this grassy bank and the warm autumn sun glows through the locust leaves. Words would flow like a stream here and a person could easily pen his love for the land, for the unclouded sky, for the caress of a soft wind.
The present day lyrics are a bit different, but Higley wrote:
“The air is so pure and the breeze is so fine/The zephyr so balmy and light/That I would not exchange my home here to range/Forever in azure so bright.”
“Flyover People” is online at www.flyoverpeople.net.
• Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeople.net.
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
bumped
March 21, 2012 at 10:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Steve must have been pasting up a newspaper last night.
I'm glad you did, Steve. Something else for us to discuss beside Madison Junior High woes.
March 22, 2012 at 6:13 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
create,
BINGO !
March 22, 2012 at 7:01 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
what?
March 22, 2012 at 3:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
really, aren't you just a little tired of a teenagers drama?
March 22, 2012 at 4:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )