[RC] The Last Ride (Robt M. Watson Poem) While Tevis Thunders - DVeritas
The Last Ride
A pioneer in life's sunset
To his pony sang this song
I am going west this time old pal
And can't take you along
I'm headed over yonder
To the happy hunting grounds
Where life's sorrows cannot follow
And peace and joy abounds
I've hung up the well-worn saddle
And laid aside my gun
Farewell my pinto pony
Our hunting days are done
The mountains and the valleys
Shall look for me in vain
The pines and dancing waters
I shall never see again
A phantom horse shall guide me
On the oldest trail of all
This the path that all must follow
When we hark the final call
The unknown trail is waiting
In that place where myriads dwell
The land where none returneth
The journey there to tell
Voices long forgot are calling
Life's sunlight fading fast
Life's trails are but faint memories
Life's hopes and dreams have passed
I'll be waiting over yonder
Just across the great divide
By the campfire I'll be watching
Good bye old pal I RIDE.
by Bob Watson (of whom, I have the coolest photograph sitting astride his
pinto partner high in the Sierras above the Tevis Trail...so, on this day, I
thought this appropriate to provide)
Robert Montgomery Watson was one of the earliest white
people to live and run a business at the lake. In 1896 he launched the steamer
"Tahoe", and in 1908 he and his son Bob built a "honeymoon" cabin in the hills
over Tahoe City. Visitors would come to Tahoe via narrow-guage railway that
traveled between Truckee and a long pier at the Tahoe Tavern in Tahoe City. Then
they'd board the steamer "Tahoe" - the queen of the lake - and tour Lake
Tahoe.
Watson became an all-around citizen, working as the area's first
constable and building - in one day - the area's first school, Tahoe Lake
School, in 1906. Like a barn-raising in the midwest, Watson rallied anyone who'd
listen to join in building the
structure.
