Stan Jones Ranger

 April 8, 2026

   More backstory on the genesis of Ghost Riders In The Sky.

Ranger Tales

  Stanley "Slick" Davis Jones was born in Douglas, Arizona in 1914. His father was a doctor and one of the first settlers in Cochise County.

   Of course, the before mentioned version of how Ghost Riders came into being, from the top of a windmill, is not the only accepted version. In another genesis of the song, when Stanley was about 12 he supposedly heard a story from an old Apache who described the spirits of cowboy who had lost their way and who were doomed to ride eternally across the sky, chasing a herd they would never catch. The eventual song he wrote took a long time, and a significant detour, before it was "penned."

The best book on the life of Jones

   When his father died, his mother moved the family to Los Angeles. He went to college at Berkeley where he earned a master's degree in zoology. During this time Jones competed in rodeos to make money. After a stint in the Navy, he worked as a miner, a fire fighter and a park ranger. It was in this last gig, after the war, when he was working for the National Park Service in Death Valley, California where he got his big break. Hollywood scouts were looking at film locations around Death Valley and when they asked their guide to give them a sample of "campfire music," Jones played a song he had just written called "Ghost Riders In The Sky." The song was recorded in 1948 (some say '49). The Hollywood boys were impressed and Jones was then assigned as technical advisor on the film The Walking Hills and there he met the legendary John Ford who hired him to write music for The Searchers and Rio Grande. In fact Jones has a bit part in the latter.

Stan Jones movie credit on Rio Grande

   Jones eventually wrote 100 Western songs and my friends in the Western Writers of America named three of his songs as being among the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

   Someone recently asked me what Uno's full name is and so I told them on the condition they not spread it around because the boy is a little sensitive to the moniker.

Uno Moco Seco

(One Dry Booger)