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
Ranch Verses
FC 11 C-09
82
William Lawrence Chittenden
I'm Sad Tonight
I'm sad tonight -- alone am I.
grief, sadness, autumn, lonesome, woman, love, lost love
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
380
Charles Beghtol
Hopi Prayer
Rain, lean down.
fertility, harvest, sun, warmth, earth
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes by Bruce Kiskaddon (1878-1950)
Mason and Janice Coggin
FC 11 K-21
99
Bruce Kiskaddon
The Line Camp
You rode into the line camp 'bout the time the sun went down.
Almost a Cowboy: A Biography in Verse
FC 11 W-24
19
Jane Webecke
Bed-Buggy Baby
As he carried his first little baby.
Annotated Epic Poem: Saga of a Mountain Man (True Life Story of a Real Pioneer)
FC 11 M-23
William B. May
entire book is one epic poem
Up Sims Creek, The Third Trip
FOLK COLL 11 N-18
13
Rod Nelson
You could call the Missus 'The Mover' or 'The Marker'
I wish I had a better vocabulary. You would think after using English for all these years I would have a better grasp of the language, but there are a lot of words out there that I should know but still are unfamiliar.
label, move, wife
A Cow's Tail For a Compass; Cowboy Poetry and Short Stories
FC 11 F-17
70
Leon Flick
Red River Corral's Packer
Ladies and gentlemen, horses, and mules. Wilderness trodders, and hard huntin' fools. You come to ole Red River, for to hunt and fish and play. Some of you live in Idaho. Some come from far away.
Ballads of the Black Hills
FC 11 G-11
37
Charles P. "Soldier" Green
The Diver
She dove into the Hot Springs Plunge.
women, woman, female, attraction, infatuation, money
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
425
author unknown
Darwinism in the Kitchen
I was takin' off my bonnet
On the Edge of Common Sense
FC 11 B-12
103
Baxter Black
The Cow Committee
Once upon a time.
beginning, start, creation, angels, cows, cattle, horns, hide, ears, pure breed, purebred
Rhymes of the Ranges
FC 11 K-04
176
Bruce Kiskaddon
Taking it Easy
Some folks gets lowd in a crowd.
noise, loud, throwed, fall
Open Range: Poetry of the Reimagined West
Laurie Wagner Buyer & WC Jameson
FC 11 W-30
92
Runaway
well I'd unhooked the trailer just like I'd done a hundred times I chocked the wheels I set the block and cranked it off the hitch.
75 Years! My Time In Rhyme
FC 11 M-65
63
E.W. "Roy" Miller
Ashamed?
You've been acquainted with people, you know (you think you do) yet at times when you meet them, they'll pretend they don't see you. They'll ignore you, get real busy, maybe look the other way; They will not acknowledge you..Not until you say-; "Hello Bill, how are you?"
Bell Ranch Glimpses
FC 11 E-01
114
Martha Downer Ellis
Late Fall Shipping
Huddled one day in the cab of the pickup.
shipping, wind, dust, train, boots, spurs
Piled Higher and Deeper on the Cariboo Trail
FC 11 P-36
14
Mike Puhallo
Twilight Ranch Branding
To pitch in and help at branding time, is a tradition of the Range.
From My Window and Other Poems
FC 11 H-48
33
Yvonne Hollenbeck
What I Really Need's A Wife
I've got so danged much stuff to do, I work from sun to sun, got a great big yard to care for and the housework's needing done.
Duke The Poems as told to Laurance Wieder
FC 11 W-32
16
Laurance Wieder
Tara
Sunrise in the High Sierra, First light dents the summer glacier. A timber wolf slinks off.
Hoofprints Through the Sage
FC 11 K- 27
53
E.J. Kirchoff
The Duet
"We're havin' this here party When I'm young and so you'll know This all happened back, " said Old Bill "Quite a lott ayears ago.
Sleepin' in the Bunkhouse
FC 11 G-32
87
Kenneth D. Gardner
The Last Surviving Cowboy
The little boy had asked his dad why they'd moved so far away.
Guitar and Saddle Songs
FC 11 E-10
47
Don Edwards
The Poet
There's one ol' feller always had me scared; He's Henry Stubbs, First National's cashier.
Bell-Bottoms to Boots
FC 11 W-07
19
Joe "Blackie" Wilson
Plenty to Choose From
There is something about an oilfield that always calls you back
Famous Cowboy and Mountain Ballads
FC 11 F-23
19
Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall)
Life
We are born; we laugh; we weep; we love; we droop; we die!
Sawdust & Shavin's
FC 11 S-11
72
Shep Smith
B.S. Bulletin No. 62 or Extended Survey of the Fool-and-Gather Department--(Fool the People and Gather the Money)
Now we know that a pheasant which eats mercuried gran contains Mercury
Ballads of the Poison Oak
FC 11 K-18
61
Jack Killam
Dissatisfaction
You plan in the heyday of innocent youth, The part you will play in the long search for truth.
Ranch Reveries
FC 11 H-21
18
Oscar Herem
A Tribute to Del Greene
A few short words to simply state how much we both appreciate.
gratitude, appreciation, friendship