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 from the Rangeland
FC 11 B-09
51
Wesley Beggs
When Your Hull Begins to Roll.
I said that I could ride him.
steer riding, circus, wild steers, frantic recreation, longhorn steer, cinch, bronc busting, pitched, thrown, badger hole, Texas, hard rides, jackpot, tough animal
Poetry of Skinny Rowland, Complete Works to 1993
Skinny Rowland
FOLK COLL 11 R-49
84
Skinny Rowland
Numbers Don't Figure
When making up a tally sheet, counting heads will number stock, you don't sell cattle the herd, or sell sheep by the flock.
numbers, lottery, guess
The Prairie Schooner and Other Poems
FC 11 D-01
70
Edward Everett Dale
Billy Jones, A.B.
He drifts right in one night an' lands.
stampede, death, burial, grave, pardners, friendship
Horsefeathers
FC 11 R-06
20
Johnny Ritch
Out Bull Mountain Way
A place on the plain.
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
34
Joaquin Miller
Crossing the Plains
Crossing the Plains
What great yoked brutes with briskets low.
buffalo, bullocks, captivity, majestic, kings
Ropin', Ridin' and Ranchin'
FC 11 F-22
3
Dennis Flake
Cherokee Bill
Cherokee Bill was an outlaw; He was known both far and near. He had a price upon his head That ws growing every year. THe law had tried to catch him, but each time he'd get away
Buck Ramsey's Grass: With Essays on His Life and Work
Scott Braucher and Bette Ramsey, ed.
FC 11 R-08
159
J. B. Allen
Requim for a Friend
Remuda Dust
FC 11 E-11
66
Fred Engel
The Big Boss
The Big Boss has a special job for me.
Famous Cowboy and Mountain Ballads
FC 11 F-23
79
Susan Marr Spaulding
Fate
Two shall be born, the whole wide world apart
Songs of the American West
Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen
FC 11 L-10
218
My Wife Has Become a Mormonite
Behold in me a broken man, all broken down with woe.
Buckaroo Ballads
FC 11 B-04
68
S. Omar Barker
The Water Hole
For miles the cattle smell it in the desert's sage and sand, And trail in lonely lines down to its edge.
watering hole, desert, life, death
Stubby Pencil Poems of Rural Livin' Doin's
FC 11 G-41
49
G.B. Griffith
That Old Corral Gate
It ain't much to look at with all of its scratches and dents. But I'll never replace it, no matter how beat-up it may become.
pasture, gate, corral
Poems from the Alamo Saloon
FOLK COLL 11 L-45
156
Paul Thomas Lillard
Druthers
I would rather a sergeant than a private be. Sergeants don't pull k.p. They get more passes and money too than the privates ever do.
sergeant, privilege, privates
Corral Dust
FC 11 F-05
10
Bob Fletcher
In Yellowstone Park
Sez the she dude to the savage.
geyser, water, cost, heat, Yellowstone, tease
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
328
Charles Badger Clark, Jr.
The Sheep-herder
All day across the sagebrush flat.
woollies, Spring, poetry, sheperd's songs, smell, Kansas State, Bliss Township, Section Five, rattler's den, Minnie, pastorals, Eden
Drift Wood
FC 11 B-59
51
Lucy S. Burnham
A Message of Spring
Spring has come to our dear valley, After winter, bleak and cold, Earth renewed in all her gladness All her beauty to unfold.
The Best of Robert Service
FOLK COLL 11 S-77
140
Robert Service
Yellow
One pearly day of early May I strolled upon the sand, And saw, say half-a-mile away, A man with gun in hand;
beach, cowardice, kill
The Collected Verse of A.B. Paterson: containing The Man from Snowy River
FC 11 P-08
247
A.B. "Banjo" Paterson
Lay of the Motor-Car
We're away! and the wind whistles shrewd
car, automobile
Trail's End
FC 11 U-01
21
John Curtis Underwood
The Corner Drug Store
The children love to come here,
The Columbine Remembers
Anna Bowie May
FC 11 M-26
72
Dorothy May Greenlee
Tokens of Mother
In a lonely grave yard many miles away
A Cowful of Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 B-43
8
Baxter Black
Cowful
Grandpa Tommy's dad used to say "A cowful is a great sufficiency."
Prairie Vagabonds
FC 11 H-04
37
Laura Vernon Hamner
Song of Civilization
Upon the plain the pulse of life beat strong.
change, progress, barbed wire, law, freedom
Rawhide Rhymes
FC 11 B-05
152
S. Omar Barker
Cowman's Wife
Now the gal that loves a cowboy might as well make up her mind.
livestock, husband, cowman, spouse, marriage, worry, fear, temper, disagreement, second fiddle, wife, honeymoon
Western Travels and Other Rhymes
FC 11 G-27
60
Lysius Gough
Dress and Money
There are many people at the present day.
dressing, riches, wealth, judge, aristocracy, heart, Christian, righteousness
Pat Richardson, Unhobbled
FOLK COLL 11 R-50
88
Pat Richardson
Tico and the Cow
Tico and Ben were the two laziest men I ever met, or at least spent much time around, and they were proud of it. If someone was overheard talking about some feller they deemed lazy, either one of them would butt right in and brag about something they'd done (or hadn't done) that'd prove they were even more worthless than the mythical guy being discussed.
cowdog, chase, trample