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
75 Years! My Time In Rhyme
FC 11 M-65
126
E.W. "Roy" Miller
Fifty Years Of Married Blitz
Fifty, happy years ago Dick and Ruth said the words, " I Do." On October 13th of 1956, how those fifty years have flew! And during theses years, united as one, raised a beautiful fam-il-ee and later on grandchildren came, adding to the family tree. After they all were raised and gone, Dick and Ruth got itchy feet
Cowboy Poetry: Real Ole Down Home Stuff
FC 11 T-06
45
Dolores Tozer
Modern Ranching
I didn't think the man at the bank, was playing a prank, When he said get a computer to run your ranch, It will save you money and time, and you will soon find With that machine you're not takin a chance
Over the Hills and Prairies of Wyoming: Stories & Poems of the West by a Pioneer
FC 11 W-05
103
Maude Wenonah Willford
Alkali Ike
This is Alkali Ike I'm tellin' about
Get Down and Come In: Poetry by Jim Ross
FC 11 R-20
23
Jim Ross
Calf Slobbers
Rhetoric, if it's rosy,
Trail's End
FC 11 U-01
55
John Curtis Underwood
The Heritage
She wanted to go to a hut hospital on the western front.
Prairie Song A Meander Of Memory
FC 11 G-44
29
DW Groethe
September
gathering her greens. Sparsing out yellows and reds from her bag of tricks as a reminder the long, cold sleep is coming, coming, coming and you'd best be gathering greens of your own.
Voices from the Heartland: A Book of Original Poetry
FC 11 S-47
20
George J. Stucker
Career Move
I was walkin' away from a bad day's ride.
Croutons on a Cow Pie
FOLK COLL 11 B-77
50
Baxter Black
The Vet'inary's Laundry
There is nothing more disgusting, More deserving to condemn Than a basket full of laundry From the local D.V.M!
veterinarian, laundry, smell
The Five Stages of Quitting Farming
John William Kulm
FOLK COLL 11 K-36
28
John William Kulm
A Real Farmer
Here's what a real farmer is: A real farmer is one of those relentless saps who doesn't quit the business even when there's a chance to get out like I did,
farmer, determination, bank
Cow Country
FC 11 E-04
75
Tom Ellinwood
Rain Hungry
In Hopi land they have a dance.
Hopi, rain, water, rattlesnake
Songs of the Range
FC 11 S-28
8
Cal DeVoll
Put Me to Sleep with a Western Lullaby
Mem'ries now take me westward
Meadow Muffins: Cowboy Rhymes and Other B.S.
FC 11 P-29
9
Mike Puhallo
To Butcher a Rose
As a scientific dissection.
Poems of American Cowboys & Nature
FC 11 C-04
94
Bob A. Carson
Riding Broncs All Day
Riding broncs, toils at his work all day.
Sagebrush, Saddles and Spurs
FC 11 T-19
13
Hamilton Teichert
Snow
When you look out the window and see all the snow You wonder how the grass can grow.
Cowboy Poetry: Cloud Watchers
FC 11 F-16
270
Rolf M. Flake
Cowboys In Town
Well, I went to jolly England And spent a week or so. I was a frog out of my puddle-- Six thousand miles from home. I dressed just like I always do-- Justin boots to Stetson hat-- Just a cowboy stranger in a far off land-- Sure no aristocrat.
Too Thick to Drink?Too Thin to Plow: Poems of the Cow Country
FC 11 M-04
10
John R. Markley
Doc the Killer
Oh my name is Doc the Killer.
Ever and Always I Shall Love the Land
FC 11 G-01
28
Clell Goebel Gannon
The Prairie Rose
Oh, sing me the song of the prairie rose.
nature
Drover Diaries: Original Poems of the American Cowboy
FC 11 N-14
81
Rod Nichols
Needs
The day's too hot; the night's too cold. These bones are too blame stiff. Jest gittin' up takes all I got. I think you git my drift.
The Fence That Me and Shorty Built
FC 11 S-49
61
Red Steagall
I'm Sleepin' in My Leggins' Tonight
There's a big storm rollin' in.
For Cowboys, Campers an' Common Folk
FC 11 H-19
10
Charlie Hunt
Badlands Music
In the badlands of North Dakota.
night, coyote, 1965, wildness, wildlife, civilization, music
Cowboy Poems and Outright Lies
FC 11 S-44
6
Hal Swift
Ballad of Dogie Munroe
Lately I've noticed that some of my friends.
Poems of the Old West: A Rocky Mountain Anthology
Levette J. Davidson
FC 11 D-02
140
Floyd B. Small
Root Hog or Die
There was some jolly drivers on the Denver City Line.
oxen team, ox-drawn wagon, overland route, ox
Saddle Songs: A Cowboy Songbag
FC 11 E-19
50
Don Edwards
Song; The Colorado Trail
Gary McMahan in Poetry & Song
Gary McMahan
FOLK COLL 11 M-70
67
Gary McMahan
The Santa Fe Trail
John Phineas Hinky's me handle. I'm a bullwhacker from Missouri folks call "Hink" And I'll tell ya 'bout the Santa Fe trail When it was the only link 'Tween the U.S. of A. and Old Mexico, Of which I was an accessory. And I will not lie to you Unless absolutely necessary.
cattle, mines, trail
Saddle For A Throne
FC 11 O-13
183
Will Ogilvie
For Beauty's Sake
There's never a Castle-tower so steep and the breath of her guns so warm but, if beauty lay bound in her dungeon-keep, the cowards of earth would storm;
fear, quest, kiss, love, golden hair, dear