"The Dreary Black Hills" probably dates from shortly after the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1875. It was recorded in Dallas, Texas in 1942. It forms part of the John A. Lomax Texas Recordings. It was published on the Library of Congress LP AFS L28 Cowboy Songs, Ballads, and Cattle Calls from Texas edited by Duncan Emrich, 1952. According to Alan Lomax the Union Pacific Railroad, while pushing westward, maintained a mobile town called Julesburg which furnished gambling, drink and women for the railroad roughnecks. When they got to Wyoming and heard of the possibility of gold in the Black Hills they decided to set down roots and establish a permanent base. The town was named Cheyenne after the Plains Indian tribe. It was printed in 16 publications including Belden's Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society (1955), Sandburg's The American Songbag (1927), Alan Lomax's The Folk Songs of North America (1960), John A. Lomax's Cowboy Songs (1919), John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax's American Ballads and Folk Songs (1934) and Larkin's Singing Cowboy: A Book of Western Songs (1931). It is #3604 in the Roud Index and appears in the Digital Tradition website.