Poem of the Week
November 10, 2003
Rocky Mountain News
The Mines and Miners of Kansas and Nebraska
Cherry Creek, K.T., June 18, 1859
Vol. 1., No. 7.
Before Denver City became Denver, before Colorado Territory or Colorado existed, and a century plus a couple of decades before the mall opened, Cherry Creek was already the place to be seen.
Sometimes we sleep in the open air,
We'll lay on the ground and sleep very sound,
Except when the Indians are howling around
CHORUS--
Then ho boys ho, to Cherry-creek we'll go,
There's plenty of gold,
In the west we are told,
In the new Eldorado.
The gold is there, 'most anywhere,
You can take it out rich, with an iron crow-
bar,
And where it is thick, with a shovel and a pick,
You can pick it out in lumps as big as a
brick.
Then ho boys ho, to Pike's Peak we'll go, &c.
At Cherry-creek if the dirt dont pay.
We can strike our tents most any day,
We know we are bound to strike a streak
Of very rich quartz among the mountain
peaks,
Then ho boys ho, to the mountains we will go.
Oh dear girls now dont you cry,
We are coming back by and by;
Dont you fear, nor shed a tear,
But patiently wait about a year.
Then ho boys ho, to the gold mines we will go,
There is plenty of gold,
In the new west, we are told,
In the new Eldorado.