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
Saddle Up And R-i-i-i-d-e More Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 R-40
42
Jim Ross
One More Request, Oh Lord
Guess it's time I started sayin' What's been on my mind a while; Just how grateful I am to You For my long life and for its style.
Poems by Skinny
FC 11 R-41
16
Skinny Rowland
Watchdog
Now I thought it might be pretty nice, to have a watchdog on the place, and though I'd never lost a thing, I up and bought one just in case. Well they brought him over to me, while I was out just yesterday,
Songs of Juniper Flat
FC 11 D-06
4
Mary R. Duling
Meditation
I stand beneath a Juniper.
Wapinitia, Jesus, Elijah, land, tree
Breezy Western Verse
FC 11 A-11
82
James Barton Adams
That Awful Little Brother
I guess you're in love with my sister; now aren't you, honest and true?
Cowboy Poetry: Turning to Face the Wind
FC 11 M-50
28
Jane Ambrose Morton
Dog Saves His Master
A Bronco Pegasus
FC 11 L-14
109
Charles F. Lummis
The Other Dream
I dreamed a dream -- and it's oh, we wander
Missouri Cowboy Poetry
Leroy Watts
FC 11 M-46
35
Gail T. Burton
The Rough Life
It was dark there in the line shack.
Missouri Cowboy Poetry
Leroy Watts
FC 11 M-46
313
James Wilson
A Cowhand's Dream
Out of the moonlit winter dark
Horseshoes, Cowsocks & Duckfeet
FC 11 B-47
97
Baxter Black
Dog Rollin'
The First Twenty Five Years: Songs and Stories
Dave Stamey
FOLK COLL 11 S-76
244
Dave Stamey
Again
Again, I swore I'd never come back And then I find I have returned Though I know the better place is somewhere else I'm back, 'til I get burned again
airport, love, longing
Tumbleweeds and Corral Dust
FC 11 M-25
24
Vern C. Mortensen
Naked I Came
Naked I came to this world of men, naught did I bring with me
birth, life
The Ranch: Poems of the West
FC 11 L-09
32
Elliott C. Lincoln
The Meadowlark
Howdy, Mister Meadowlark!
springtime, song
Up Sims Creek, The Third Trip
FOLK COLL 11 N-18
87
Rod Nelson
Plans underway for Almont's 60th Lutefisk Supper
You can tell that fall is here in the Almont area. I hear they had their lutefisk meeting. A meeting is held each year a few weeks prior to the big supper to get the project in action.
lutefisk, planning, meeting
Rhymes from the Rangeland
FC 11 B-09
85
Wesley Beggs
When the Bronk Begins to Bawl
It is out here in Montana, which we call the treasure state.
bronc, riding, pitching, bronc riding, bronc busting
Write 'Em Roughshod; Life 'N Such Like
FC 11 G-36
44
Peggy Godfrey
Get Ir Right, Fella!
The local radio stock report that happens at then 'til eight Proceeds in routine manner while I sop eggs off my plate. One morning a fill-in announcer was doing the morning news.
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
339
Maurice Lesemann
Ranchers
They went off on the buckboard in the rain.
sage, westward movement, teams, steer
Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee?s Songs of the Range
FC 11 P-17
22
Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee
The Cowboy's Farewell
A cowboy lay out on the prairie
songs only
Red Hills Malarky
FC 11 W-14
37
Sam Wilson
Timer Jones
When Timer was a growing lad among his friends in Beach
Horse Tracks
FC 11 K-30
41
E.J. Kirchoff
Francis
He never had a buckle. Or a saddle he could show. And not a single dollar Won at any rodeo. But he was sure a cowboy Of the kind that is a hand.
Wild Prairie Roses: A Collection of Verse by North Dakotans
Shirley J. Mikkelson
FC 11 M-11
56
Ethel E. McIlwain
I Shall Not Go Again
I went back to the old farm today
change, home, family, memories, past
Rhymes of a Rolling Stone
FC 11 S-63
32
Robert Service
The Idealist
Oh you who have daring deeds to tell! And you who have felt Ambition's spell! Have you heard of the louse who longed to dwell In the golden hair of a queen? He sighed all day and he sighed all night, And no one could understand it quite.
Farm Ballads
FC 11 C-02
59
Will Carleton
Over the Hill from the Poor House
I, who was always scouted, they say.
mother, son, poverty
The Exalted One
FC 11 W-25
17
Sue Wallis
Winds
Exhaling.
Pardners
FC 11 C-18
28
Jo Casteel
Fashion Frenzy
Last night I was dreaming a nightmare.
clothing, fashion, beauty
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
446
Out West
I hear thee speak of a Western land