EARLY IDAHO SONGS OF THE MONTH - February 2011

 

Heigh Ho for Idaho. Lyrics (no melody) for this song appear in A Journal of Travel, which consists of the writings of  E. S. McComas, who traveled west from Iowa in 1862 for the Salmon River Mines.  Instead, he wound up in eastern Oregon where he spent his life as a miner, entrepreneur and (most significantly) an editor for the Mountain Sentinel and Grande Ronde newspapers.  This song is exceptional in several aspects, aside from being one of the earliest known “Idaho” songs.  It is equally rare as an early song pertaining directly to the Oregon Trail and as a song by men traveling west (rather than north and east from the Pacific Coast) to the Idaho mines.  The rendition here is by Charley Simmons of Boise.

OregonTrailMap

 

No instrumental song posted for February 2011.

© 2010. This page created on February 22, 2011.