Rose of Cimarron is the sobriquet given in American frontier lore to Rose Dunn, who at age 15 was romantically involved with and an accomplice of the outlaw George Newcomb. Rusty Young learned of Dunn through a brochure he chanced upon while in Oklahoma during Poco's 1973 tour. "It told a story of a woman who took in outlaws in the 1800s. She fed them, mended their wounds and sent them on their way. Or so they say".[1]
In 1976 Young was asked by his friend, actor and aspiring record producer Stuart Margolin, if he could compose a cowboy song for a comeback album Margolin planned to produce for veteran western performer Roy Rogers. Young remembered the brochure on Rose Dunn and came up with the song "Rose of Cimarron". The Roy Rogers album never reached fruition but Young's bandmates Paul Cotton and Timothy B. Schmit heard "Rose of Cimarron" and wanted Poco to record it.[2]
Issued as a single in October 1976 - the 6:42 album track being edited to 3:14 - "Rose of Cimarron" reached #94 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track also became Poco's only charting single in Australia where it charted as high as #51. In the UK the single was released in its full album format of 6:42. Cash Box said of it that "the harmonies are really good, if a trifle predictable, and the arrangement is more sophisticated than usual."[3]
In a June 7, 2013 interview with Rockin' Rich Lynch of SoundPress.net Radio Network, Cotton, whose tenure with Poco would be second only to Rusty Young's, would describe "Rose of Cimarron" as being his favorite Rusty Young composition. Young himself has cited "Rose of Cimarron" as the Poco song which he's most proud of having written: "I love everything about that song - from the very visual lyrics to the beautiful melody."[4]