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
Muses Of The Ranges
FC 11 D-28
74
John C. Dofflemyer
Bottlenecks
You curse the man who lips the bottlenecks and fades to ramblin' tales thet pass you bye, who limbered from his tongue, forgets the wrecks from well-worn cowboy
weak, small, sober, outstanding, critter, fool
Rodeo Fever: A Collection of Poems Capturing the Spirit of Rodeo
FC 11 R-01
22
Tom Raley
Her Man is Down
Her man is a dogger, he jumps those steers.
Arizona Women: Weird, Wild and Wonderful
FC 11 J-16
119
Dee Strickland Johnson
Teresita, La Santa del Cabora
My mother was a Tehueco Indian, My father--well, that was quite plain.
The Broncho Book
FC 11 C-13
128
Captain Jack Crawford
Heard in the Cane Brake
Fo' de Lord, I's gwine ter hustle.
River Jordan
A Bronco Pegasus
FC 11 L-14
9
Charles F. Lummis
Lost Child
The Little Girl that I used to know -
Ballad of a Cheechako
FC 11 S-48
114
Robert W. Service
The Ballad of Gum-Boot Ben
He was an old prospector with a vision bleared and dim.
A Living Tradition -- South Dakota Songwriters Songbook Volume 1
George B. German Music Archives
FC 11 G-02
20
Bernon Alger
Blue Seal Blues
I'm the kind of man you seldom find.
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
376
Frances Ekin Al Son
Last and Worst
Upon life's high way I was hastening, when
Hoofprints Through the Sage
FC 11 K- 27
60
E.J. Kirchoff
At the End of a Story Day
Old horse, I'll bet you're mighty glad To be in from the storm; To have a manger full of hay; A barn that's snug and warm.
Scribblings
FC 11 R-42
13
Norman Edward Rourke
Stormy Day
Stormy day--we need the rain. It comes in torrents then lifts again. Air is fresh, trees are clean, flowers bloom, and grass turns green.
Rhymes of the Ranges
FC 11 K-04
173
Bruce Kiskaddon
The Stampede
The afterglow fades and the daylight is failing.
singing, cattle, thunder
Signature of the Sun: Southwest Verse, 1900-1950
Mabel Major and T.M. Pearce
FC 11 M-02
260
Hilton Ross Greer
A Pagan Mood
World, go worship as you will.
Saddle Bag Wit and Wisdom
FC 11 T-17
64
Dave Tingey
The Trails End
I was thinking about you today old friend.
Prairie Poetry: Cowboy Verse of Kansas
Jim Hoy
FOLK COLL 11 H-62
120
Mike Bates
Blusterin' Bill
Down in southern Kansas where their's Oklahoma clay A cantankerous old cowboy got buried yesterday.
honor, death, opinion
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes by S. Omar Barker (1894-1985)
Jodie and Bob Phillips
FC 11 B-44
89
S. Omar Barker
The Ring-Tailed Wowser
They asked me "What's a wowser?"
The Five Stages of Quitting Farming
John William Kulm
FOLK COLL 11 K-36
5
John William Kulm
An Irrigation Ditch
An irrigation ditch one mile long, two thousand rows of corn, three hundred siphon tubes spread out one in seven rows, and eleven empty beer cans at the headgate. A party here last night and I wasn't invited.
irrigation, water, corn
Frontier Ballads
FC 11 H-06
69
Joseph Mills Hanson
The Coyoteville Peace Meeting
We held a peace convention in Coyoteville last night.
order, law, town meeting, point of view, discussion, contention, fight
Confessions of A Cowboy Poet
FC 11 C-52
120
Bob Christensen
The Threshers
I remember when the treshers came, we'd bind and shock the grain the haul it to the big machine they'd park along the lane. We'd hire several neighbors to sack and weigh the wheat one hundred twenty pounds per bag and then we'd sew them neat.
Intermountain Folk: Songs of Their Days & Ways
FC 11 S-04
11
E. Richard Shipp
Our Wyoming
The Master Builder in the long ago,
Echoes Of The Dawn
FC 11 B-63
18
Belvina W. Bertino
Ranchyard Fishin'
On a quiet summer morning Just before the sun is up You slip off to the ranchyard dam With your fishin' rod and pup.
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
450
Glenn Ward Dresbach
Yucca in the Moonlight
Flowers of mist and silence.
nature, beauty, sand, endurance
Poems of American Cowboys & Nature
FC 11 C-04
60
Bob A. Carson
Good Old Home
I love a home.
City Cattle: Humorous Western Political Satire
FC 11 J-06
20
Derwin J. Jeffries
Uncle Sam's Castle
Now, with your home.
Government, control, compliance
I'd Make an Awful Pioneer
FC 11 J-12
25
Reed C. Jensen
Cowboy's Life
Cowboys now-a-day are antsy they continually like to roam.
Saddle For A Throne
FC 11 O-13
178
Will Ogilvie
The Apple Winds
I had no thought of stormy sky in days when I was small and all the world was bounded by our ten-foot garden wall. I never thought the storm winds came
apples, cold, chill, storm, sails