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
Signature of the Sun: Southwest Verse, 1900-1950
Mabel Major and T.M. Pearce
FC 11 M-02
16
Alexander L. Posey
Two Clouds
Away out west, one day.
Echoes of the Past: The Cowboy Poetry of Melvin Whipple
FC 11 W-17
38
Melvin Whipple
Back on the Old Home Range
The evenin' sun was gittin' low, and long dark shadows fell.
Cowboy Poetry: The Campfire Ain't Quite Out
Kent Stockton
FC 11 S-59
45
Kent Stockton
The Cowboy's Art
Around the turn of the century Vaqueros held sway in the west.
The Unreadable Writin's of Spur-Track Jack
FC 11 B-41
52
Jack Blankenship
Would You Mind?
Goin' visitin' is a favorite of mine.
Songs of the American West
Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen
FC 11 L-10
493
The Swede from North Dakota
I bin a Swede from Nort' Dakota.
Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory
Buck Ramsey
FOLK COLL 11 R-48
51
Buck Ramsey
By the Spring By the River
The fall down Scanty on the scattered trees Lighted in their color Our way to the endline camp. No one could know, I did not and you did not, What on earth we had in store there.
river, music, leaves
Christ and the Cowboy
FC 11 M-29
38
Chuck Murphy
Sheep
He said to Pete, "Get off your duff
belief, Christianity, God, religion
Stretch Marks
FC 11 G-34
78
Peggy Godfrey
Season of indifference
What's wrong with me? This disconnectedness! So unlike shearing, lambing summer "ewe mow" in town
Stretch Marks
FC 11 G-34
5
Peggy Godfrey
Continuing Education
prose
Heaven on Horseback
Austin and Alta Fife
FC 11 F-13
22
Theology in Camp
I was on the drive in eighty; Working under Silver Jack.
Over the Hills and Prairies of Wyoming: Stories & Poems of the West by a Pioneer
FC 11 W-05
33
Maude Wenonah Willford
Rooster
I've come all the way from Bitter Creek
short story
Saddle Songs: A Cowboy Songbag
FC 11 E-19
96
Don Edwards
Song; I'd Like To Be In Texas
Where Cattle Roam
FC 11 S-15
50
Al Summers
Arizona Skies
This here city life is all too strange,
White River Pete Sez
FC 11 B-14
Bryon Bradfield
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes by Henry Herbert Knibbs
Mason and Janice Coggin
FC 11 K-23
118
Henry Herbert Knibbs
If a Horse Could Talk
I wonder, now, what my pony things, When I slip his bit and he snuffs and drinks.
A Medley of Wilderness and Other Poems
FC 11 B-01
25
Elliott S. Barker
Oh, No!
Old soldiers never die, they say, They just retire and fade away.
Cowboy Folk Humor: Life and Laughter
FC 11 W-21
John O. West
Maverick Western Verse
John C. Dofflemyer
FC 11 D-09
41
Drum Hadley
Grand Canyon
From this rimrock edge two courting ravens dive, twist, fallout ward?
75 Years! My Time In Rhyme
FC 11 M-65
7
E.W. "Roy" Miller
A Good Feelin'!
I'd been ridin' for several hours through country that's might rough! It sure wasn't easy on "Cougar;" in face it was down right tough! We happened to be in high country; You could see for miles every way! We got on top of this rocky ridge, where the sky meets dirt and clay! I stepped down off of ol' "Cougar,"
Poems from the Alamo Saloon
FOLK COLL 11 L-45
175
Paul Thomas Lillard
Proof
"This is trash what you've written," the publisher said to me.
poet, trash, proof, slip
Poems from the Alamo Saloon
FOLK COLL 11 L-45
175
Paul Thomas Lillard
The Turkey
It's a damn good thing old Ben Franklin didn't have his way when he came up with the notion on that bygone day.
benjamin franklin, funny, turkey
Cowboy Curmudgeon and Other Poems
FC 11 M-45
85
Wallace McRae
Little Things
I've laid for hours on my back.
Rope and Pan
FC 11 E-02
47
Martha Downer Ellis
One of the Dauntless
Through my window I see her standing there.
woman, aging
The Mystique Of Grouse Creek
FC 11 S-64
7
Elden K. Shaw
The Yellow Rose
My Father spoke of a hardy yellow rose, That on the banks of the Grouse Creek grows, Planted long years ago with loving care, By my Grandma on our homestead there.
Songs of the Workaday World
FC 11 B-54
25
Berton Braley
The Sand Hog
He's fifty inches round the chest, his leather lungs are sound, his heart must stand the air compressed in caissons underground; with pressure hammering his ears, his shovel in his hand, he works in several atmospheres and burrows in the sand.