Old Tom Hom

Now back in old Wyoming many long years ago

When there was no law and order round to regulate the show

Those old Wyoming ranchers had a problem on their hands

Trying to keep the cow thieves and the rustlers off their land

Now old Tom Horn came a riding up one day

Gonna lend a hand to the cattlemen in his own peculiar way

Well he took his 44-40 out and cleaned it up right well

Then he rode off down Dry Gulch with a sack of rifle shells

Old Tom Horn with a rifle by his side through the hills of Wyoming he would ride

There ain't no tellin' how many cattle thieves he killed

But it was God help the rustler when Tom Horn was in the hill

If you rode the Larame Valley by either day or night

You can be right sure he's watchin' you through his rifle sights

He laid out in the bushes and the rustler come around

Then he'll spill the boy with a single shot and chamber one more round

Now the rustlers tried to stop him but they found there was no way

He could pick them off from a mountain side a half mile away

Well they ran him down the border but they never touched his hide

He just slipped across to his hide out on the Colorado side

Old Tom Horn with a rifle...

Then one day young Willie Nickle was out a ridin' around

A 44-40 shot rang out and laid the poor boy down

Well it was only fourteen years since that little kid was born

And they said it looked like the doing's of that lonesome Tom Horn

So the cattlemen went and strung him up with a length of fresh snipped rope

But his ghost still hangs out in the hills and spooks the Antelope

Now all the rustlers hatred and all the cattlemen's fears

Have keep all Tom Horn alive through all the changing years

Old Tom Horn with a rifle...