Down Where the Lost Rivers Flow (Flora Mason Foster, 1917)  We have found this wonderful cowboy/ranching song numerous places around Idaho, so it surely had quite a bit of popularity at one time.  We consider it one of the finest true Idaho cowboy songs among the many we have seen.  The song appeared in the Apr. 30, 1920 issue of the Arco Advertiser  newspaper and later in Little Lost River Valley by Anna Kyle Sermon (2000)  Sheet music is at the ISHS, among other places, but only as  photocopies.  The song was written around the start of World War I, inspired by Arco area boys marching off to war.  Information on Flora Mason Foster was obtained from ISHS Ref. Series #882 and conversations with Reva Walker of Arco.  Flora was born in 1879 in Strother, Missouri, educated at Christian College in Columbia and then came to Idaho.  She taught at the University of Idaho-Southern Branch (now Idaho State University) and in public schools in Arco and Boise.  In 1945, Flora was appointed by Governor Gossett to direct ISHS, serving two years while construction of the new museum at Julia Davis Park was begun.  She died in 1972 in California. 

The rendition here by Sean Rogers (piano and lead vocals) and Gary Eller (banjo and harmony vocals) also appears on the CD/booklet High Tone Music of Idaho (2010).