FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection
Folk Coll 11 is Utah State University's cowboy poetry collection. The collection, originally created
by a generation donation by the L. J. and Mary Skaggs Foundation, includes books gathered
during a fieldwork project in the early 1980s to document cowboy poetry in the U.S. west (see Folk
Coll 11f). From this important fieldwork project came the impetus for the first Cowboy Poetry Gathering held in
January 1985 in Elko, Nevada. Since that time, each January, the Fife Folklore Archives staff take the collection
and Access database (that details each book, poem, author, first line and key words), to the National Cowboy Poetry
Gathering for offsite use. Through University purchases and generation donations from poets and collectors, this collection continues to grow.
Book Title
Composer
Call #
Pages
Author
Poem Title
First Lines
Keywords
Jesse Rogers' Song Collection and Souvenir from Old Mexico
Jesse Rogers
FC 11 R-32
25
The Lane County Bachelor
My name is Frank Bole an old bachelor I am
Musings from Cowboy Country
FOLK COLL 11 R-46
100
George Rhoades
One-Night Rodeo
On a trail drive headed north, Jake rode into old Fort Worth, Lost his heart, don't you know, In a wild one-night rodeo.
rodeo, love, scorn
Voices from the Heartland: A Book of Original Poetry
FC 11 S-47
1
George J. Stucker
Coyote Tracks
I never won a lot of points.
Songs of the American West
Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen
FC 11 L-10
409
Charlie Johnson
The Old Cowboy
I rode a line on the open range.
Truth, Lies & Otherwise
FC 11 R-24
5
Carl "Skinny" Rowland
From Bad to Worse
Now my wife just left and the well went dry,
A Medley of Wilderness and Other Poems
FC 11 B-01
20
Elliott S. Barker
The Rest Cure or Hell Ain't Necessarily Fire and Brimstone
Bill worked like mad throughout his life, About it griped with zest.
humor, work
New Mexico in Verse
William Felter and John L. McCarty
FC 11 F-01
3
S. Omar Barker
Cliff Dwellings
Smoke-blacked, empty and still with years.
adobe, cliff dwelling, silence, desolate, kiva, Indians
Brownlee Bedtime Stories
FC 11 S-10
24
Shep Smith
Big Fish -- Small Men
Some of the fish in the river near Brownlee
Christmas on the range and other Christmas Poems
FC 11 H-46
1
Yvonne Hollenbeck
When it's Christmas on the range
When winter has come to the rangeland
A Rhyme for No Reason
FC 11 U-02
14
Bob Urry
The Bargain
I bought me a horse at the auction one day.
Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets
C.J. Hadley
FC 11 H-59
125
Curley Fletcher
The Pot Wrassler
How are you there cowboy, I hope you are well, Jest light from your saddle and rest fer a spell. Here are the makin's,
wagon, jean, truck, galoots
Drover Diaries: Original Poems of the American Cowboy
FC 11 N-14
131
Rod Nichols
The Talent
Lord knows why the boss ever hired him, he wuzn't what you'd call a hand, he stayed in our way or in trouble, not much of a cowboy that man.
From a Cowboy's Point of View
FC 11 H-52
87
Dick Hays
Juan' Birthday
Now me ol' Juan I'm old an' gray, For sixty jears I am today,, An' me myself an' quart of wine Chore gonna have a wan beeg time.
Dry Creek Rhymes
FC 11 D-11
36
John Cutler Dofflemyer
the job
I've got to where I don't lift the bales.
Legacy Of The Land
FC 11 B-72
48
Virginia Bennett
Night Watch
When the full moon rises at Twin Springs and the night wind begins to howl. The coyotes tremble in fear of something both both friendly and foul. For something (or someone) lurks in the shadows
football, gloom, poker, green eye, haunted, fun
Horses Women Mountains
David Roberts
FC 11 R-17
34
Funn Christopher Roberts
Observations by a Three Year Old
Rocks are alive
Camp and Trail: Incidents of Pioneer Life
FC 11 L-11
34
William Irven Lively
Percy the Dude
Somewhere, deep down in every man.
Rhymes o' a Driftin' Cowboy
FC 11 H-01
93
Chuck Haas
Nuthin' Strange
`Twas a raw day...late September.
herding, stampede, death, tromped, killed, trampled, lightning, burial,
Tangled Up In The West
FC 11 H-50
8
David Haskell
The Weeds Are Streetwise
Born in the Valley's sugar beet slums, Enduring the Eptam water-runs. Dodging hand-hoes and bed knives. The weeds grow up streetwise.
Sittin' and A-Grinnin': A Collection of Works
Layle Bagley & Linda Merrill
FC 11 B-11
2
Mildred Michel
All But Me
Since early years, things have changed a bit.
Cowman's Wife
FOLK COLL 11 J-24
30
Dee Strickland Johnson
The Roan and The Pontiac
I met Miss Betsy at a dance; her eyes were big and blue, I swung her every chance I got- but the drummer swung her too. He said, "I'll Miss Betsy home. It's rainin', so of course, I'll take her in my Pontiac; you've only got a horse."
city, country, wedding, flat
Western Verse or Worse
FC 11 F-10
30
Rolf M. Flake
Bull Only
This "40 acre nester."
cows, bull, calves, breeding, nester
A Roundup of cowboy humor
Ted Stone
FC 11 S-66
24
O. Henry
The Pimienta pancakes
prose
Out West to Outback and Beyond
FC 11 W-34
82
Dick Warwick
A Sad Sea Story
Once upon a fine fine day, many many years now past, The sun came up like plunder over Fundy Bay so fast. Did I mention it was Sunday, Or Monday at the worst?
Dry Crik Rview: Spring 1992
John C. Dofflemyer
FC 11 D-20
48
John C. Dofflemyer
Traveling LIght
Like a leafless oak sentinel silhouetted on a near ridge, nothing is more apparent than the fact that twenty-first century man is a victim of his environment.
ambition, productive, evolution, aspiration, foundation