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
Rhymes of the Ranges
FC 11 K-04
22
Bruce Kiskaddon
The Army Mule
Sometimes mules got in the army' cause they'd pulled a wicked trick.
pack, packer, mule skinner, stubborn
Cowboy Poetry: Tracks That Won't Blow Out
FC 11 O-10
187
Ray Owens
How Come You Did it That Way Lord?
How come you made a gopher, Lord? What good is he, if any? 'Cept to maybe make us grateful You didn't creat twice as many. They're a double-barreled nuisance
Bunchgrass, Sage and Pine
FC 11 K-11
49
E.J. Kirchoff
Two, But Not of a Kind
He drifted in one mornin' to; Our Sunday rodeo.
Hoofprints And Heartbeats
FC 11 S-50
42
Colen H. Sweeten Jr.
I Don't Shake Hands (With Cowboys)
There's something about a cowboy's life.
callused hands
Riding the Range With Floyd
FC 11 O-09
15
Floyd Oyhus
The Stub-Horned Steer
It was getting late in the springtime, I'll never forget the year. When this small brockle-faced heifer, Gave birth to this stub-horned steer.
RU Lazy 2?: The Cowboy Poetry of Ira Cowpoke
A.B. Nelson
FC 11 N-08
5
Ira Cowpoke
Makin' the Ride
I've witnessed some interestin' rides.
FC 11 S-34
no book, free number
Our West to You
Idaho Writers League
FC 11 I-01
35
Lola Guderjohn
Western Grandeur
I stood where all the world lay at my feet.
wind, nature, valley, peace, memories, birds, wilderness
Verse for Aussie Children
Carmel Randle
FC 11 R-27
70
Betty Olle
Alphonso Cordella Visits
At night when little folk are sleeping
On the Edge of Common Sense
FC 11 B-12
50
Baxter Black
The Phantom Cow Buyer
This fall I sat and watched in amazement.
truck, Oklahoma, misfits, dandies, beef, expensive, calves, cattle
Scattered, Lasting Remnants: "Fine Lines" of Poetry and Song
Echo Klaproth
FC 11 K-25
31
Elizabeth Ebert
With barbed wires streteched so tightly that maestros could play a symphony. (from "Ballad of the Pasture Gate"). And this will be the option: take a cowboy for adoption and you'll know you helped to save a dying breed. (from "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone").
Cowboy Poetry: Rhymes, Reasons, and Pack Saddle Proverbs by Chris Isaacs
Janice Coggins
FC 11 I-02
51
Chis Isaacs
Thanks, Grandpa
I think back now and then on the days of my youth.
Songs from the Sage Brush
FC 11 P-03
35
Katherine Fall Pettey
The Puncher in New York
Say, all you dudes an' you lady so fair
Brushstrokes & Balladeers: Painters and Poets of the American West
C.J. Hadley
FC 11 H-60
78
Joel Nelson
Scotty
The Flaxen maned colt that had more cow than any three horses I ever rode Scotty who I named after Peter Scott-the Aussie-a good horse hand
fever, journey, deal, buck
Our West to You
Idaho Writers League
FC 11 I-01
36
Claire Trussell Bowling
Her Darling Cooking Failures
"Nothing to do but work."
Ever and Always I Shall Love the Land
FC 11 G-01
27
Clell Goebel Gannon
The Storm
When winds are soft and mellow and the sky.
life, cycle, nature, power, smell, pioneer, prairie, past, future
Stretch Marks
FC 11 G-34
22
Peggy Godfrey
Living Here I
If it looks easy It's because we practice
A Cowful of Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 B-43
178
Baxter Black
What's Christmas to a Cow?
I know you've prob'ly asked yourself, what's Christmas to a cow?
Western Travels and Other Rhymes
FC 11 G-27
107
Lysius Gough
To Sister
Once more your face I long to see.
Cowboys, Cattle, Horses, and Stuff
FC 11 B-65
51
T.L. Bush
One Sunday morning the preacher for a church in the heart of cattle country happened to notice a rancher in the congregation for the third Sunday in a row.
Sagebrush Classics: Pure Wyoming 'Stuph'
Betsy Bernfeld
FC 11 B-53
18
Matthew C. Field
To a Grizzly Bear
Ar-ow-haheark! O, madame, are you there? Well, I must own I've longed to see a bear; And must confess I've sought occasion, too.
Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads
John A. Lomax
FC 11 L-12
229
The Texas Cowboy
Oh, I am a Texas cowboy.
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
293
Alice Corbin
Juan Quintana
The goat-herd follows his flock.
desert rain, old man, muchacho
Get Down and Come In: Poetry by Jim Ross
FC 11 R-20
70
Jim Ross
The Threshing Machine
A silent sentinel it does stand,
The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses
FC 11 P-16
69
Banjo Paterson
Johnson's Antidote