Postcard from the Past: Westerner Pines for Open Spaces

by Dick Perue

A Feb. 24, 1926 issue of the Park County Herald, published by the Cody Enterprise, notes,

Wyoming, and the Buffalo Bill country in particular, has one friend in the Windy City who constantly pines for the wide-open spaces of the sagebrush state, which is evidenced by the following poem that recently appeared in a Chicago paper.

“Slim” of the “Lazy D” 

He came, all alone, to Chicago,

a city’s resplendence to see.

Just roaming, from Cody, Wyoming,

from the ranch of the Lazy D.

Gone was his wide, flapping Stetson,

gone was his Indian vest,

no chaps made of hide,

no scarf flowing wide,

yet he reeked of the cowboy wide West.

He spoke of his little log cabin

of springs, clear and cool as the air,

of hair-raising slides down the

steep canyon sides,

in a scramble for deer or for bear.

His words brought the odor of pine trees,

the lure of a trail winding high,

the wonderful sight of the

Rockies at night

nestling close to the stars and the sky.

I pondered – so proud of the city

where the wonders of man never cease –

could we take to the West,

though our efforts the best,

such a picture of beauty and peace.

“I’m leaving tomorrow,” he told us.

“Heading west for my home, Lazy D.

I suppose it sounds strange for a man from the range,

but Chicago’s too lonely for me.”