A Photo Essay on Split Rail Fences in Buffalo Valley near Moran, Wyoming, and the Grand Tetons
Photos by Bill Youngs
"Don't Fence Me In" -- these words went through my mind a couple days during an evening walk beside Buffalo Creek and along Route 287 toward Moran, Wyoming, and the Grand Tetons. Few songs evoke the spirit of the Old West as effectively as "Don't Fence Me In," and yet here I was in a quintessential western setting that was intersected by one fence after another, all blending in nicely with the scenery.
Admittedly there was a time when local "wars" were actually waged over proponents of open range for cattle and fenced farm yards for chickens, pigs, and crops. And in fact, the most famous movie filmed against the backdrop of the Grand Tetons, Shane, is a story built around just such a conflict.
The best-known version of "Don't Fence Me In" was written by Cole Porter in 1934 for the film, Adios Argentina, and wasfeatured subsequently in many other movies -- and sung around countless campfires ever since. Wikipedia offers a good little history of the song, including information about the original lyrics on which Porter built and the place of the film in popular culture. Here are the familiar lyrics:
Admittedly there was a time when local "wars" were actually waged over proponents of open range for cattle and fenced farm yards for chickens, pigs, and crops. And in fact, the most famous movie filmed against the backdrop of the Grand Tetons, Shane, is a story built around just such a conflict.
The best-known version of "Don't Fence Me In" was written by Cole Porter in 1934 for the film, Adios Argentina, and wasfeatured subsequently in many other movies -- and sung around countless campfires ever since. Wikipedia offers a good little history of the song, including information about the original lyrics on which Porter built and the place of the film in popular culture. Here are the familiar lyrics:
Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above
Don't fence me in
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love
Don't fence me in
Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze
And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees
Send me off forever, but I ask you please
Don't fence me in
Just turn me loose
Let me straddle my old saddle
Underneath the Western skies
On my Cayuse
Let me wander over yonder
Till I see the mountains rise
I want to ride to the ridge where the West commences
And gaze at the moon till I lose my senses
And I can't look at hobbles and I can't stand fences
Don't fence me in
I like the song with it's "starry skies," "evening' breeze," and that "murmur of the cotton wood trees." And I love Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as one of those places "where the West commences." But on my walk on New Year's Day, 2014, I also liked the poetry of these fences.
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