"Stanislaus River" song by Rick Byars, words

Words to the iconic song about the Stanislaus River by Rick Byars, a 1970s ARTA guide. Rick describes the way it came together: “It was my first year of rafting and I trained and worked on the Stanislaus most the the 1974 river season.  The fight was on to Save the Stan with Proposition 17, and I came up with the chorus pretty easily.  But I couldn’t get any verses.  Try as I might, nothing would come – I still had only the chorus.

Someone (I think it was Marty Booth) suggested that I go down to the river and see if that would inspire me.  So I did.  I took a raft and my guitar down to Chinese Camp one day and sat by the river.  I just watched the river flow by and sang the chorus about three times.  Then something happened – the verses just came bubbling out.  I wrote all the verses in less than 15 minutes.  So I like to think that the Stan wrote the verses for me!

The audio of Rick singing the song is here – and other versions and citations here.