Robert Fletcher (5)

Robert Fletcher (1885 - 1972) was an engineer, writer, and poet. Born in Iowa, Bob moved to Montana when he was 23 to work as a surveyor. Some years later, he went to work for the Montana Highway Commission, producing all of the state's tourism promotional material and, ultimately, creating more than 100 highway markers (many of which still stand today), along with picnic areas, visitors' centers, maps, and roadside museums. The author of a cowboy poetry collection called Corral Dust, Bob also wrote a nonfiction book called Free Grass to Fences, about the Montana cattle industry. This poem, "Open Range”, was the basis for the hugely successful Cole Porter song, "Don't Fence Me In.” Bob sold the rights to Porter in 1934, and received no further credit—either as the original source or as recipient of the resulting financial windfall—until Porter voluntarily gave him a portion of the royalties on the hit song