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
A Snake In The Bathtub And Other Stories
FOLK COLL 11 B-79
1
Curt Brummett
The Suicidal Heifer
Many times I have asked myself, why is it always the youngest of the crew, the newest member of the team, the newest member of the team, or the most gullible guys that get the nasty, dirty, or even the most dangerous jobs that nobody else want?
heifer, anger, suicide
Holaday and Hampton Poetry
Hampton Livestock Commission Co.
FC 11 H-39
47
The Holaday & Hampton Poet (Bruce Kiskaddon)
How He Drinks
It starts a fellar thinkin' fer to watch a hoss a drinkin' .
Slow Smoke
FC 11 S-02
4
Lew Sarett
Four Little Foxes
Speak gently, Spring, and make no sudden sound
Rhymes of the Ranges
FC 11 K-04
41
Bruce Kiskaddon
Cow Milkin'
Most cow boys ain't handy at milkin' a cow.
milking, milch cow, milk
Time Not Measured by a Clock: Cowboy Poetry from the life of a Cowboy Wife
FC 11 J-14
43
Carole Jarvis
The Reluctant Cowboy Carpenter
He rebuilds a stretch of old fence, good as new.
gates, corrals, ranch, saddle, cattle
Ruby Mountain Rhymes
FC 11 W-09
43
Jack Walther
The Mark of a Cowboy Poet
This is a story about a Cowboy you will find in every crew.
Humorous Cowboy Poety: A Knee Slappin Gathering
Dawn Valentine Hadlock and Madge Baird, editors
FC 11 H-42
121
Larry McWhorter
The expert
Twas seventy-six, I think was the year on that fateful day in the spring. Jack Moreman took us, the pride of the school, to see if we'd learned anything.
Cactus Center Poems
FC 11 C-06
120
Arthur Chapman
The Forester's Return
I'm back on the job by the singing river.
forestry, nature, aspen, open air
Bunkhouse Tales of Wild Hoss Charley
FC 11 L-37
35
Fred Lambert
Water Bound
It was raining slow and gentle At the Cross-Bar Lazy B, When the foreman, Wild Hoss Charley, Pointed out--and said to me:
Buckaroo Ballads
FC 11 B-04
51
S. Omar Barker
Spring Flowers
Violets bloomin' in spring; I never see -- Many a right purty thing; Jest misses me.
Sensin' Somethin'
FC 11 D-19
41
John C. Dofflemyer
Missin
I miss campfires where tales trail off, coffee cups with a whiskey cough, huddled men with the front side warm or under a fly amidst the storm;
Steering With My Knees
Paul Zarzyski
FOLK COLL 11 Z-5
98
Paul Zarzyski
The Elko Ecdysiast - or, What Happens in Elko Ain't Staying in Elko
Redefining "shock-n-awe," the stripper, on break, takes a seat at our front-row, center-stage table out of the bluest blue, making us believe in life after death, patron saints of dumb luck,
stripper, lust, steer
Musings from Cowboy Country
FOLK COLL 11 R-46
74
George Rhoades
Livin' in Tornado Alley
We watched with dread of hope As dark clouds churnin' Built up over the western ridge Roilin' toward us turnin'.
tornado, weather
Hung out to dry
FC 11 D-22
23
John C. Dofflemyer
Feeding the squirrels
Feeding ground squirrels to ravens and buzzards with a .22 rifle
Signature of the Sun: Southwest Verse, 1900-1950
Mabel Major and T.M. Pearce
FC 11 M-02
159
Walter R. Adams
Cotton
I climb, at dusk, the narrow trail.
Memories of the XIT
FC 11 L-07
8
Rosell Lewis
All Hail to Thee - The XIT
All hail to thee, the XIT, A range so wondrously fair.
Cowboy Poetry: Cloud Watchers
FC 11 F-16
198
Rolf M. Flake
Mountain Swap Meet
Now, listen up folks, I'll tell you a tale From northern Arizona and the town of Pinedale. Now Pinedale folks live out on the end of the trail-- So far out in the sticks they seldom get mail. Here lives the tall pine and the sturdy ol' oak. The crusty dry farmer and the weathered cowpoke And nearby Clay Springs was the home of ol' Joe Holyoak-- And I'm tellin' you what--ol' Joe enjoyed a joke.
Reflections of the West: Cowboy painters and poets
C.J. Hadley
FC 11 H-59
90
Badger Clark
The Old Cow Man
I rode across a valley range I hadn't seen for years. The trail was all so spoilt and strange It nearly fetched the tears.
god, horn, real estate, tombstone, copper
Drift Wood
FC 11 B-59
40
Lucy S. Burnham
The Desert Charm
My desert home, thou land of dreary waste, Of constant wind and ever shifting sand; Thy sun-baked earth brings forth no herb, no flower, No life, no faintest hint of beauty grand.
On the Edge of Common Sense
FC 11 B-12
118
Baxter Black
Longhorns - not a poem
Horsin' Around
FC 11 C-53
26
Stu Campbell
The Squeler and What I Finally Learned From Him
Prose: A cowboy rides a lot of horses on the different outfits he rides for, some good horses and some not so good horses.
The Pony Express: An Epic of the Old West
FC 11 M-22
200
Charles Rendell Mabey
The Heroine
Though numbered with the millions of free-born fighting men
freedom, war, death
Songs of the American West
Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen
FC 11 L-10
370
John Garner's Trail Herd
Come all you old timers and listen to my song.
Song of the Cowboys
N. Howard Thorp
FC 11 T-11
35
Larry Chittenden
The Cowboy's Christmas Ball
'Way out in Western Texas,
Tales of the Old West
Bane K. Wilker
FC 11 W-33 v. 4 no. 2
16
Joan Schernitz
Hombre
Shadings, he was all shadings burnt siena . . .polished oak gun-metal grey of thunder-ridden skies. Shadings. . .