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
West of East
FC 11 H-17
71
Harry Elmore Hurd
A Cowboy's Swan Song
Good-bye my little dogies on the range.
calves, change, sky, sage, alkali, desert, rain, longing
Waddie's Whole Load
FC 11 M-36
102
Waddie Mitchell
Saddle Tramp Philosopher
We were brandin' Zaga's cattle
branding Including cassette
Faded jeans n' wore out boots
FC 11 M-61
18
T. Matheny
Artistry
Happened to ask a city minded fella why helives and what he sees in the big city. His reply wasn't long, all directed towards material things and money.
Land Circle: Writings Collected from the Land
FC 11 H-43
90
Linda M. Hasselstrom
At the balloon races in Custer, South Dakota
In this green and granite canyon Horatio Ross found gold; Yellow Hair wrote dispatches while the miners met.
Old Stories
FC 11 K-26
98
Jo Lynne Kirkwood
Kanab Creek
Red clay like cracked mosaic Shards with missing grout a slash across this sandstone desert.
Blood Sister, I Am To These Fields
FC 11 H-56
3
Linda Hussa
Put On Your Face
The desert puts on its face in Spring when tidings of rain scatter rabbitears, Indian paintbrush, lupine, wild peach,
smile, desert, seasons
The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing
Guy Logsdon
FOLK COLL 11 L-46
249
Unknown
One-Eyed Riley
I was a-sitting in my easy chair, A-viewing the landlord's daughter; I took a notion in my head, I'd like to feel her hindquarter.
rape, father, mother, wantonness
Outdoors, Faith, Fun and Other Poems
FC 11 B-02
32
Elliott S. Barker
Grace or Invocation
Oh, Lord, Creator of heaven and earth and all things therein and thereon, we ask Thy blessing upon this food for the nourishment of our bodies.
prayer, religion
Songs of the Saddlemen
FC 11 B-06
82
S. Omar Barker
Cow Camp at Night
A cowhorse snuffs on a ridge top.
animals, coyote, moon, hawk, night, darkness, lonesome, campfire, haze, hoof dust, natur, rememberances, peacefulness, city notice, roundup, range, saddle, Old Earth, ground, sleep in the open, starlight, sky, cowboy life, cow camp
Cowboy Poetry Cookbook: Menus and Verse for Western Celebrations
Cyd McMullen and Anne Wallace McMullen
FC 11 M-39
77
Wallace McRae
The Branding Lunch
It's not just the hustle, the fun, or the bustle, the squalling and bawling and smoke; the sweat speckled brow, the charge of a cow; the din or the grin from a joke.
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes & Prose by D.J. O'Malley, The N Bar Kid White
Janice and Mason Coggin
FC 11 O-06
84
D.J. O'Malley
A Cowboy's String
I've a string of cow-horses I'm surely stuck on.
Horses Women Mountains
FC 11 R-17
25
David Roberts
Words
Words will not say it all
Songs of the American West
Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen
FC 11 L-10
480
There Comes a Reckoning Day
I had a dream the other night when every thing was still.
Coolin' Down: An Anthology of Contemporary Cowboy Poetry
Phil Martin
FC 11 M-53
29
Dennis Gaines
Alone
Cowboy! Ho! The title he'll claim and give to his flesh and bone,
Saddle Pals
FC 11 S-56
11
Don't make me go to bed and I'll be good
A laughing baby boy one evening in his play, disturbed the household with his noisy glee.
Along Old Trails: Poems of New Mexico and Arizona
FC 11 S-06
45
William Haskell Simpson
Taos Drums
I have crouched in your kivas by night
Song of the Cowboys
N. Howard Thorp
FC 11 T-11
69
author unknown
The Gal I Left Behind Me
I struck the trailin seventy-nine,
Western Poems
FC 11 R-02
9
Col. Charles D. Randolph "Buckskin Bill"
The Plainsmans Dream
I dreamed last night.
The Best of Robert Service
FOLK COLL 11 S-77
125
Robert Service
Victory Stuff
What d'ye think, lad; what d'ye think, As the roaring crowds go by? As the banners flare and the brasses blare And the great guns rend the sky?
victory, cost, sacrifice, death
The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses
FC 11 S-43
24
Robert W. Service
The Law of the Yukon
This is the law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain.
Shorty's Yarns: Western Stories and Poems of Bruce Kiskaddon
FC 11 K-28
113
Bill Siems, ed.
Shorty Corrects a Mistake
One night the boss calls Ike into the house, and when he comes out he looks like he's got sumpthin' heavy on his mind.
More Hilarious Happenings and Other Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 M-63
116
E.W. "Roy" Miller
Remind Us, Lord
In the hustle and bustle of this busy world, we get caught up with the rest; To hurry and scurry here or there, we seem to "keep up with the best". So remind us Lord, to set aside time,
meal, attention, faithful, devotions, family
Hogwash Hokum and Heifer Dust
George Wolstad
FC 11 W-37
1
Edward E. Paramore, Jr.
The Ballad of Yukon Jake
Oh the north country is a tough country that mothers a bloody brood
Sundry Rhymes
FC 11 G-18
20
June Brander Gilman
An Angel in Disguise
The unlimited expanse of the Heaven.
Poetic Works of Henry Lawson
David McKee Wright
FC 11 L-24
42
Henry Lawson
A New John Bull
A tall, slight, English gentleman.