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
Corral Dust
FC 11 F-05
53
Bob Fletcher
Sunset
The Sun Chief enters his medicine lodge.
sun, sunset, color
The Night That Acey Deucy Bit the Bear: Poetry from the Hunewill Ranch
Ken Gardner
FC 11 G-26
78
Lloyd Jones
Untitled Unpoem
I have no poem to read this year.
Confessions of A Cowboy Poet
FC 11 C-52
36
Bob Christensen
The Casino
I remember in Nevada, it was several years ago, how they closed up a casino on the shore of Lake Tahoe. They didn't want to to do it but they really had no choice 'cause the bomb put in the lobby was the dominating voice.
Bunkhouse Tales of Wild Hoss Charley
FC 11 L-37
47
Fred Lambert
The Call
Dreamy days Springy air Seems to greet me everywhere; Sort of want to drag about; Kinder feelin' all played out.
West River Waltz: Western Poetry
FC 11 G-31
87
D. W. Groethe
He was a Cattleman
Since time beyond thought it's been cattle and men.
Cowboy Lore
FC 11 A-01
129
Jules Verne Allen
The Old Chisholm Trail
Come gather 'round me boys and I'll tell you a tale all about my troubles on the old Chisholm trail.
Coma ti yi youpy, youpy ya, Old Ben Bolt, Texas
Confessions of A Cowboy Poet
FC 11 C-52
106
Bob Christensen
The Perfect Deer Hunt
The alarm was set so he would get a plenty early start. He'd planned all year, the time was near he was chompin' to depart. But there was a flaw, 'twas Murphy's Law, the alarm it didn't ring.
JB The Circle
Duward Campbell and Chuck Milner
FC 11 A-17
38
Jack Douglas
JB Allen was a friend of mine our friendship stood the test ot time
tribute to J.B. Allen
Orejana Bull: For Cowboys Only
FC 11 G-16
13
Gail I. Gardner
Real Cowboy Life
You have read these cowboy stories.
stock, cattle, winter, hardship, stubborn
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
438
author unknown
Astronomical
"Cousin Edward, what do these scientists mean,
Missouri Cowboy Poetry
Leroy Watts
FC 11 M-46
92
Carol Ellis
Sore Feet
We'd been working cattle all day long
Coming Out Of The Cowboy Closet (Cowboy Poetry, Pictures, and Other Stuff)
FC 11 C-56
14
D.L. Chance
Waltz With Me, Maggie
1. At a barn dance up in Idaho, he watched her move round' cross the floor.
Arizona Born
FOLK COLL 11 C-62
12
Dean Cook
First Waltz
In the dance hall down by the rodeo grounds, the band played a waltz, long ago.
dance, waltz, mystery
The Blueberry Roan
FC 11 L-17
12
Bill Lowman
Daddy, How Come?
I pretty well had it figured out.
Charles Badger Clark Poetry from The Pacific Monthly
FC 11 C-26
5
Charles Badger Clark
Bacon
You're salty and greasy and smokey as sin, But of all the grub we love you the best.
JB The Circle
Duward Campbell and Chuck Milner
FC 11 A-17
5
J.B. Allen
Tendrils
Shy and Tuffy, Fred and Tybo nursed the wounds that scarred his soul anchors set aginst the riptide of despair
Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West
C.J. Hadley
FC 11 H-60
90
Banjo Paterson
In the Droving Days
"Only a pound," said the auctioneer, "Only a pound; and I'm standing here selling this animal, gain or loss-only a pound for the drover's horse?
poor, sea, honest, ill
Orejana Bull: For Cowboys Only
FC 11 G-16
19
Gail I. Gardner
The Firemen's Mascot
The firemen have some bright red wagons.
fireman, profession, occupation, horn, bull, alert
Somewhere in the West: Texas Women Who Left a Legacy
FC 11 K-22
49
Linda Kirkpatrick
Teresita
There was an uneasy tremor in the ground; She knew something was not right.
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
255
Annie A. Preston
The Green Grass Under the Snow
The work of the sun is slow
Blood Writing
Sean Sexton
FOLK COLL 11 S-75
93
Sean Sexton
Album
In the album, pages of old photographs of lives gone by - that beautiful past with its great future still struggling to arrive. Little did they in the pictures know or forsee us, not as we can look page by page, into the sepia softness and see them:
photos, album, history
Ride For the Brand
FC 11 S-53
19
Red Steagall
The code of the West Hasn't Changed
The horse trap is empty, the saddle shed's gone.
outfit, hooch, pasture
Songs of the American West
Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen
FC 11 L-10
87
D.G. Robinson
Seeing the Elephant
When I left the States for gold.
miners, bust, Platte, Pike, Great Salt Lake, Mormon, Brigham Young, desert, Marysville, Downieville, Hangtown, gamblers
Crazy Quilt: A Patchwork of New and Collected Poems
FC 11 E-21
17
Elizabeth Ebert
An Ordinary Morning
'Twas just an ordinary mornin' Somewhere along in May, When my husband hollered from the yard, And then I heard him say, "I'm goin' to the pasture, It'll take an hour or two, And if you'd like to come along, We'll drive out in Old Blue."
Wind and the Night Monsters
FC 11 H-24
64
Carol Hample
Little Pleasures in Life
The midday sun was hot and dry, as usual in late July, no shade at all, and chance of rain was bleak. But three old cows had common sense, for where they gathered by the fence