MUDDY WATER In the arid arroyo

"Fight For The Water Hole" by Frederick Remington (1901)

MUDDY WATER

In the arid arroyo they found it.
Water! They clustered around it.
Water! Not much of it….
Barely a touch of it.
Muddy! Who cared! It was water!

In the heat, furnace-hot,
they fought off the drought.
Their tongues turned to kiln-fired clay.
It hurt when they cursed
their God-awful thirst
and the winds that were blasting away.

The streams all around were bone dry;
and the springs that they found…alkali.
Their thirst….unsurpassed!
Sweet water at last!
Muddy! Who cared! It was water!

Sweet water! They cupped it with haste.
Sweet water! They’d die for a taste.
There’s none that would doubt it.
They’d perish without it.
Muddy! Who cared! It was water!

They’d fight for it. Maybe they’d die.
It was theirs.
Just let somebody try
to pry it away….
it’s a high price they’d pay!
Muddy! Who cared! It was water!

Bette Wolf Duncan © 2002

   Note:
     Water meant survival in the West. Many of the range wars fought in the Old West involved water and water rights; and it remains a source of much litigation today. The water laws in effect in the Eastern and Southern states followed the English common law “Riparian Rights Doctrine”. Under this concept, the rights to flowing waters belonged to the owner of the land on the bank of the river or stream; and this right included access to and use of the shore water. It applied to all bodies of water, so long as the riparian owner did not interfere with the reasonable use of water by other riparian owners.

    Miners in the Old West needed water in mining operations that might, or might not, be located adjacent to a stream. As a result, they deviated from the Riparian Doctrine. The law that developed was called the Prior Appropriation Doctrine. This “first in time, first in right” doctrine usually awards water rights to the first person using the water. Originally, miners were often the first appropriators. First appropriators had, and still have, the right to the water even if there operation was/is not located adjacent to the stream or river.
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RODEO COUNTRY just   received The 2007 Medallion Award from The Academy Of Western Artists.

Great Cowboy poetry about the Old West!

Russell Country

    This collection of cowboy poetry is an echo of the stories Bette Wolf Duncan heard as a granddaughter of early Montana and North Dakota pioneers. The Old West poems contain memories of a time when the great buffalo herds still thundered through the valleys, when Cheyenne and Crow still camped around the Yellowstone River, when mountain men and cowboys, prospectors and miners, rustlers and vigilantes still populated Russell Country. The New West poems concern contemporary cowboy life.  Russell Country features the art of Charlie Russell, Frederick Remington and N. C. Wyeth. It was published by Hancock House Publishers.

                        Rodeo Country

       The author, Bette Wolf Duncan, grew up in southeastern Montana, not far from the Wyoming border. This is Rodeo Country; and she celebrates this rich western heritage with poems and photos of regional rodeo champions. She is the granddaughter of early Montana and North Dakota pioneers; and she was married to a former cowboy whose grandparents were among the earliest ranchers in southeast Montana. She can still hear with her heart the pioneers tales of relatives and other old-timers. This book is the echo of their tales and of good times remembered. It contains a collection of poetry and written accounts that embody much of the history and events that shaped Montana and Wyoming.

The book is $12.95. You can order it snail mail:
            Wacobelle Productions
                  1755 S.E. 108th Street
                    Runnells, Iowa 500237
                                                                                                               (515) 966-2461 (515) 966-2461
                                     Or by e-mail wacobelle@msn.com


For more cowboy western poetry of Bette Wolf Duncan-


Visit Casey's Corral of Cowboy Poetry ,
Charlie Russell's Stagecoach and
Rodeo Country