"The Cranberry Bogs", also known as "The Cranberry Song" was possibly a poem composed at the turn of the century by Barry (or Barney) Reynolds of Wisconsin. It was recorded by Mrs. Frances Perry as "The Cranberry Song" for the Archive of Folk Song in 1946. Perry's version gives the railroad town as "Mather" but in later versions it becomes "Mercer". There is no town called "Mather" in Wisconsin but there is a town called "Mercer" in northern Wisconsin, near the border with upper Michigan, about 20 miles south and slightly east of Ironwood. It's a wet region and Cranberry Lake is about 60 miles south of there. It was also recorded by a group of women whose names I have forgotten. I heard them sing it on a public radio folk show some years ago. It was printed in Harry B. Peters' Folk Songs out of Wisconsin (1977) and Norm Cohen's American Folk Songs: A Regional Encyclopedia, in two volumes (2008). It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as #5412.