Powder River, Let ’Er Buck

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is John King.

I am calling from rarely sunny but sunny today, Bremerton, Washington.

Well, what’s going on, John?

So I used to be a news anchor in Montana.

And I wasn’t into the sports coverage stuff, but my coworker really was.

And he had this phrase he would always say before a big game, which was, Powder River, letter Buck.

And, you know, I guess it was a way to, like, get everybody amped up.

And he would yell that, and I could not understand it for the life of me, what it meant.

It just sounded like gobbledygook to me.

So I’m hoping maybe you could solve the riddle for me.

Powder River Letter Buck, is that let her or letter?

It sounded like let her, but he said it pretty fast.

There was a lot of energy behind it.

Powder River Letter Buck!

So this is Montana. Set the scene for us. Who is he and where is he?

So this guy, he’s still on the radio. His name is Peter Christian on the radio.

Every week he hosts Grizz Games. He’s a talking head, I guess you could say.

Sure.

Pretty big name in western Montana.

But he worked in radio since radio was a thing, basically, back when it was early days radio.

He’s been in the industry for a long time.

So this fellow, he’s announcing the games. He’s hollering this out in the PA system, getting the crowd riled up?

I would normally hear him in the studio, in a radio studio.

But yeah, it would be that kind of atmosphere, I think, where you would normally say it.

But, you know, the technology’s changed a little bit.

What did he say when you asked about it?

How did he explain it?

He said it was something another older radio host used to say.

And he gave me some quick explanation, but I don’t really remember what it was.

I’m not surprised that it was passed from person to person, because this is an old one.

Jonathan, this has got a story behind it.

And I want you to bear with me.

I’m going to tell you a tale that I’ve gotten from a dictionary of old Western words collected by Ramon Adams.

This is one of my favorite books of Western language because it’s original.

A lot of the works, the collected language of cowboys and the West and, you know, cattle and ranchers and that sort of stuff.

A lot of them just kind of ripped each other off or they made stuff up.

But Ramon Adams, he got it right.

It’s original stuff.

He was out there.

He talked to the people.

He got it in print, and it’s really good stuff.

So there was a cattle drive in the fall of 1893 on the way to Casper, Wyoming.

And one night they camped not far from where Highland, Wyoming now stands.

And the cowmen in charge of the drive told everyone that the next day they would water the herd in the Powder River the next morning.

So none of the cowboys knew that river, but they were excited.

A river crossing was a really big deal because it could mean danger and excitement.

If the water was high, you could lose a horse or even your own life and lose some of your cattle.

You know, you had to be careful.

So danger and excitement, this was a really big deal.

So the next morning, the cowmen in charge had them get their swimming horses to cross the river.

Because they were going to cross the river several times before nightfall.

Now, they had several horses each.

That’s what you had.

You had horses crossing the river and horses for this and horses for that.

That’s how it worked.

Horses suited for each kind of duty.

And there was among them a cowboy named Missouri Bill Schultz.

And he let out a swear because he’d already roped his regular horse, not his swimming horse.

And he said, this buckskin couldn’t even wait a river.

Come 10 a.m. the next morning, they reached the river, the Powder River, but it was almost dry.

There was no water.

It stood around a little, barely running from one hole to the other.

They didn’t need their swimming horses after all.

And when Missouri Bill saw it, he looked at the river very seriously for a moment and looked at it sometime.

And then he said, so this is the Powder River.

And so they had an easy day of it.

The river was no problem.

They watered their horses.

They did what they needed to do.

They got to camp.

And then eventually they made their way to where the horses needed, or the cattle needed to be delivered.

And then that night at camp, Missouri Bill told everyone how he had heard of Powder River.

And now he had seen Powder River and he kept referring to Powder River nearly every day until they reached Casper.

And every day for 28 days, Missouri Bill Schultz talked about Powder River.

And so once the cattle were in, they went to the saloon for a social drink.

This is how the story goes, a social drink.

And you can imagine what that meant.

Missouri Bill said, boys, come and have a drink on me.

I’ve crossed the Powder River.

They had drinks and more drinks, got plenty social.

Before too long, Missouri Bill was like, have a drink on me I’ve swum the Powder River and here’s to Powder River let her buck and Powder River’s coming up and yes sir Powder River’s rising and soon after with a yip and a yell he pulls out a six gun and threw a few shots through the ceiling and yelled Powder River’s up come and have another drink bang bang so that’s the origin Missouri Bill crossed the Powder River and wanted everyone to know.

So that wow so so when you I don’t know how that I always wondered how it tied into sporting games like football or basketball because bucking definitely sounds like something you’d see at the rodeo.

Yeah, so a river is said to buck when the waves are going and there’s white caps and it’s throwing debris and logs and snares everywhere.

And you dare not go out in it with your horse or even with your own self because you might get caught and drowned.

It’s definitely said to buck.

So it sort of sounds like one of those running jokes on a long road trip with your buddies.

You know, it just gets sillier and sillier.

And then when you get off the road and you’re around other people, it somehow takes on a lot more significance and color.

And I love the fact that it is exactly that.

It’s a running joke that caught its own life, spread from person to person, and then it lost its origin story.

So here we are talking about it more than 100 years later and wondering why people say Pied River Letterbuck.

And it was Missouri Bill Sheldon, his story about crossing the mostly dry Powder River.

Powder River ladder book.

Hey, John, thanks so much for calling.

Thank you.

All right.

Happy trails.

Happy trails to you, too.

Well, what’s the phrase that’s rattling around in your head that you’re wondering about?

Call us, 877-929-9673, or send it to us in email.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.