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
Famous Cowboy and Mountain Ballads
FC 11 F-23
16
Where did you get that hat?
Now how I came to get this hat 'tis very strange and funny
The Collected Verse of A.B. Paterson: containing The Man from Snowy River
FC 11 P-08
243
A.B. "Banjo" Paterson
A Dream of the Melbourne Cup
Bring me a quart of colonial beer
Bell-Bottoms to Boots
FC 11 W-07
103
Joe "Blackie" Wilson
Green Pastures
He walked thru an orange grove at midnight
Muddled Meanderings in an Outhouse
FC 11 R-11
52
Bob Ross
For Noah's Ark
This looks like something for Noah's Ark
Poems from the Alamo Saloon
FOLK COLL 11 L-45
149
Paul Thomas Lillard
Good People
Firemen, cops para-medics, what a wonderful crew. I just can't find words enough to praise the things you do.
praise, first responders
Sawdust & Shavin's
FC 11 S-11
35
Shep Smith
B.S. Bulletin No. 27 or New Medicated Jangle Angle or Roll On--Roll Off
Is your elbows getting rusty?
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
248
Time to Me
Time to me this truth hath taught
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
72
author unknown
Her Name
In search from "A" to "Z" they passed,
Christ and the Cowboy
FC 11 M-29
46
Chuck Murphy
Bringing in the Drill
You button up your collar
God, belief, religion
Poems, Facts and Fiction
FC 11 O-03
5
Harold Otto
In Memory of My Wife
I stood alone by the window, As evening softly fell
death
Black
FC 11 D-19
27
John C. Dofflemyer
for haley thorn
since i am my father's child i like horses that are wild and that's the way i'd like to be runnin' loose wild and free
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
367
author unknown
Slander
'Twas but a breath
Sun and Saddle Leather
FC 11 C-12
74
Charles Badger Clark
Bachin'
Our lives are hid; our trails are strange.
bachelor, women, men
What I Learned On the Way to Life: Insights and Concepts learned along the way..
FC 11 J-15
63
Hans "Jake" Jeppson
Perfect Magic
In that hour when night meets day.
Lyrics of the Lariat
FC 11 G-10
139
Nathan Kirk Griggs
Do Not Fear
Fainting one, on foamy sea.
belief
Cowboy Heart, Soul, and Humor
FC 11 L-36
57
Doug Foshee
Spurs and Bicycles
Now spurs is a great invention for cueing horses and such But when it comes to riding bicycles they don't bring about much luck. The story I'm fixin' to tell you was told to me as true, So if it was a windy, then a windy I'll be telling you.
Cow Country Ballads
FC 11 J-01
62
Laurance Lincoln Jameson
Visions of Rangeland
Bring back the days of range land.
memories, pasture, west, plains, range
75 Years! My Time In Rhyme
FC 11 M-65
115
E.W. "Roy" Miller
I Guess It Makes Sense
Now, I've never had a problem with my weight in sixty years; Puttin' on some extra pounds was the last of all my fears. I guess I always worked it off 'course in the winter time; I'd always put on extra pounds, but it was no big crime! But since I gave up smokin' all I want to do is eat;
Hoofprints Through the Sage
FC 11 K- 27
88
E.J. Kirchoff
A Piciunous Mule
The talk in Wilbur's stable Was of critters that was smart. And some of them there stories Suer would touch a feller's heart. Old Deacon says, "A sheep dog's Smart as anything around.
Songs of a Sourdough
FC 11 S-03
64
Robert W. Service
The Reckoning
It's fine to have a blow-outin a fancy restaurant
Loose Cow Party
FC 11 B-67
20
Baxter Black
The Horse Show Conversation
"A fine lookin' horse you've got there (if yer into modern art) I had a horse like that one time (but he wasn't very smart),
Now and Then: The Heart of a Cowboy
FC 11 R-16
Phillip Ryan
Mom
She's like a rock my mother.
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes by S. Omar Barker (1894-1985)
Jodie and Bob Phillips
FC 11 B-44
28
S. Omar Barker
Cowboy Breed
You take a bunch of cowboys where the bunkhouse stove is red.
Songs of a Sourdough
FC 11 S-03
93
Robert W. Service
The Woman and the Angel
An angel was tired of heaven, as he lounged in the golden street
Dry Crik Review (Environmental Issue): Fall 1991
John C. Dofflemyer
FC 11 D-20
20
J. B. Allen
A Good Lettin Alone Is Worth Two Workins
That ol "lonesome" comes a creepin - like a cougar in the night moving silent on them big ol padded feet. Strikin swiftly in the stillness of the high-up
moon, honor, reason, dream, challenge, implement