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
Hung out to dry
FC 11 D-22
30
John C. Dofflemyer
To Chuck from Colorado
This Mesa Verde doe reminds of Split Ear.
Blood Sister, I Am To These Fields
FC 11 H-56
128
Linda Hussa
I Fix The Fence - The Fence Fixes Me
The fence I patched ran away rolled a week ahead. Ahead. My horse along for company, we sang my horse and me
horse, fence, wire, blue
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
223
Margaret E. Sangster
Our Own
If I had known in the morning
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes & Prose by D.J. O'Malley, The N Bar Kid White
Janice and Mason Coggin
FC 11 O-06
81
D.J. O'Malley
The Hunyocker
On a bright pleasant day in September.
West of East
FC 11 H-17
23
Harry Elmore Hurd
Hunting Fossils in Colorado
O fossil leaf, once trembling in a breeze.
immortality, rock, fossils, sediment, nature, ancient history
Rawhide Rhymes
FC 11 B-05
97
S. Omar Barker
The Ol' Bandanna
It might be silk it might be cotton.
handkerchief, bandana, fashion, pride, cowboy implement, device, appearance, blue, red, half-dressed, sweat, swipe off sweat, branding work, cold, weather, frostbite, ear muff, mask, bank robbery, snoot, hand courtin some, gal, woman
Rhymes Along the Way
FC 11 L-39
73
Robert L. Laumeyer
The Used Camel Dealer
It was a regular drinking night, Most of the boys had had a few. The feisty banker attacked schools, then he renounced car dealers, too. It seemed this "trusting" banker made a foolish teenager loan
Corral Dust
FC 11 K-33
16
E.J. Kirchoff
Didn't Mind Walkin'
We're settin' 'round the fire Drinkin' coffee, smokin', too. Got to tellin' of the many Different jobs that fellers do. Old Smokey Jones says, " minin' Underground and diggin' coal
Prairie Wife
FC 11 E-20
53
Elizabeth Ebert
A Windy Montana Tale
A gale force wind, Montana style, Was blowing from the west When a man of nearly ninety years Began a midnight quest To catch an errant Stetson That had taken sudden flight Across the street and parking lot And off into the night.
Cowboy Stuff: Some of the Poems by Jody Sixkiller
FC 11 W-16
35
Jody Sixkiller Whitlock
Slim's Saturday Night
Slim had a vision of wonderful things.
Corral Dust
FC 11 F-05
8
Bob Fletcher
The Missouri
Yes, stranger, I came up that river.
river, Missouri River, past, change, west
Harry Tales: Volume I
FC 11 H-23
19
Les Harry
Cat Tracks
I put my boots on yesterday
snow cat, cats, panther, lynx, puma, tiger, snow machine, winter, cold
All This Way for the Short Ride
FC 11 Z-02
3
Paul Zarzyski
Benny Reynold's Bareback Riggin'
A bacon slab a-boiled black in oil every day.
Rhymes from the Rangeland
FC 11 B-09
125
Wesley Beggs
A Stampede in North Dakota
Talk about your milling cattle and stampede on the plains.
home, weather, storm, Wadsworth Brothers, punching cattle
Cowboy Stuffin'
FC 11 A-06
12
Don "Cheese" Akerlow
The Brown Trout Story
I heard about a good place to go fishin'; It was over in Kooskia, Idaho; It's said there is better fishin' than Montana; Iffin' that's true, I am ready to go.
Trail Dust of a Maverick
FC 11 B-15
54
E.A. Brininstool
The Range Rider's Soliloquy
Sometimes when on night-herd I'm ridin', and the stars are a-gleam in the sky.
night-herding, stars, night, belief, afterlife
Riding the Dim Trails
FC 11 C-01
55
Austin Campbell
Ride the Pale Horse
It's time for you to quit Old Timer.
The Big Divide, death, aging, old-timer
Ranch Verses
FC 11 C-09
17
William Lawrence Chittenden
Montclair
Dear lovely mountain town, farewell.
landscape, memories, past, boyhood,
The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses
FC 11 P-16
75
Banjo Paterson
Last Week
Rhymes of the Ranges
FC 11 K-04
202
Bruce Kiskaddon
The Long Horn Speaks
The old long horn looked at the prize winning steer.
cattle, breeds, hardiness, animal
Cowboy Poems
FC 11 G-23
11
Arden Gillespie
The Prayer
I don't know much 'bout religion Lord.
The Pony Express: An Epic of the Old West
FC 11 M-22
147
Charles Rendell Mabey
Sixty Sober Seamen
From the port of Honolulu to the Philippines we scudded
Diary of My Heart
FC 11 S-23
12
Edwin Lee Sankey
The Last Brag
A bunch of us boys were talking it up, when
The Collected Verse of A.B. Paterson: containing The Man from Snowy River
FC 11 P-08
216
A.B. "Banjo" Paterson
Across the Queensland border line, the mobs of cattle go
Cow Country
FC 11 E-04
77
Tom Ellinwood
Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
His little ranch they sought to buy.
selling out