Cripple Creek (folk song)

"Cripple Creek" is an Appalachian-style folk song, often in old time arrangement for the fiddle, although it is played on stringed instruments such as the banjo. It has become a standard among bluegrass musicians and is often one of the first songs a banjo picker learns. Its time of composition is unknown, and there are theories supporting that the song is either about Cripple Creek, Virginia or Cripple Creek, Colorado during the gold rush. It was frequently recorded by early country musicians in the 1920s.
Score.
Simplified version of the basic melody (A part followed by B part).
<score>
\new ChordNames {
 \set chordChanges = ##t
 a4 a4|%1
 a4 a4|%2
 a4 a4|%3
 e4 a4|%4
 e4 a4|%5
 a4 a4|%6
 a4 a4|%7
 a4 a4|%8
 e4 a4|%9
 e4 a4|%10
\new Staff \relative c" {
 \key a \major \time 2/4
 \repeat volta 2 { %start repeat
 a'8 a16 a e8 cis | %1
 d8 fis e a,16 b | %2
 cis8 cis16 cis b8 a | %3
 }%end repeat
 \alternative{
 {e8 fis16 e a8 a16 a |} %4
 {e8 fis16 e a4 |} %5
 \break
 \repeat volta 2
 { %start repeat
 cis8 cis16 cis b8 a |%6
 cis8 cis16 cis e8 a,16 b |%7
 cis8 cis16 cis b8 a |%8
 } %end repeat
 \alternative{
 {e8 fis16 e a8 a16 b |} %9
 {e,8 fis16 e a4 \bar "|." |} %10
</score>
Lyrics.
The following are lyrics from a 1909 version included in the Journal of American Folklore, 1915.
When Cecil Sharp collected folksongs in the Appalachian Mountains in 1917 he found one version of "Cripple Creek":