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
Sun and Saddle Leather
FC 11 C-12
132
Charles Badger Clark
Half-Breed
Fathers with eyes of ancient ire.
half-breed, Indians, White
Farm Ballads
FC 11 C-02
141
Will Carleton
Up the Line
Through blinding storm and clouds of night.
railroad
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
246
Henry Herbert Knibbs
Waring of Sonora-town
The heat across the desert was a-swimmin' in the sun.
Jim Waring, Salvadore, outlaw Chola, killing, shooting
More Hilarious Happenings and Other Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 M-63
11
E.W. "Roy" Miller
Reconsider
So you want to be a real cowboy? Heard all you had to do; Was ride and rope and fight every dope, and the girls would come runnin' to you!
fame, fortune, pains, meal, post, song, dream
Holaday and Hampton Poetry
Hampton Livestock Commission Co.
FC 11 H-39
23
The Holaday & Hampton Poet (Bruce Kiskaddon)
A Gentle Hint
Just now and then some feller used to settle in a place.
Blood Sister, I Am To These Fields
FC 11 H-56
64
Linda Hussa
Desert Ranch Story
You might think, Oh, this is a horse story. I've read this before. But it's not. It's a story about a man who rode
fox, smell, rope, love
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
Rhymes of the Range Land
FC 11 J-04
30
Bob Johnston
Levi's Blue Denim
It first covered the legs of cowboys.
pants, trousers, clothing, gear, women, fashion
Rimes O' Round-Up
FC 11 F-08
39
Chester Anders Fee
Self Same Song
"I know I'm one o' the scum o' earth, and the worst o' scum am I."
will, longing, mother, father, son, family, sorrow
Tokens in an Indian Graveyard
FC 11 H-57
67
Linda Hussa
Badger Mountain
Beyond Chinatown sand, bitterbrush, horse brush, shad scale, and a shout of hissing chilled me. I knew no desert beast of such an open-mouthed warning until a four-cornered pillow raced across the broken ground roward my horse.
fetlock, brush, hole, eyes peered
The Columbine Remembers
Anna Bowie May
FC 11 M-26
73
William May
The Queen of Colorado
Songs of the American West
Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen
FC 11 L-10
493
The Swede from North Dakota
I bin a Swede from Nort' Dakota.
Tracks, Trails, and Tales: or Dad Stories . . . in the early Cody Country
Dick Frost
FC 11 F-07
28
Mary Frost
The Sheep Hunt
Alone again in God's country.
mountain sheep, hunt, trophy
Songs of the American West
Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen
FC 11 L-10
261
W.H. Prather
The Indian Ghost Dance and War
The Red Skins left their Agency, the Soldiers left their Post.
Messiah, vision, ghost, buffalos, dance, soldiers, battle, settlers
Cow Country
FC 11 E-04
76
Tom Ellinwood
Forgotten Fort
These `dobe walls once knew the sound.
fort, cavalry, past
Out Where the West Begins
FC 11 C-07
44
Arthur Chapman
Out Among the Big Things
Out among the big things.
timelessness, nature, city, calm, meaning of life
Poet Lariat
FC 11 S-22
32
Gene Skaug
The Business
Heard about this business
After the Chisholm
FC 11 R-45
150
George Rhoades
This Abyss
What is this Deep abyss Staring at me So mournfully? Who can know what's below? Some say bliss, Some nothingness. I hope when I enter in That mystery place, I go with grace.
bliss, nothing, grace
A Little Bit of Texas: A Collection of Original Poetry
FC 11 N-10
16
Rod Nichols
Brands
A broker has his ticker tape.
brand
Where Old Trails Meet the New on Oregon High Desert
Ramona Turmon and Lona Tankersley Burkhart
FC 11 T-12
42
Ramona Turmon
Whiskey
This old horse and me
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
438
Lines On a Grasshopper
I've got him, at last, in the focus
Songs and Poems of the Old West by an Old Cowboy
FC 11 S-12
55
James H. Stevenson
The Dawn
The dawn's wind is fresh in my face
Rhymes of the Range Land
FC 11 J-04
42
Bob Johnston
Heard on the Evening News
Everyone chastising the President.
Germans, Jews, killing, violence, mafia, terrorism
Poems of the West: The Spinner of Mists and On Sunset Paths
Lowry Nelson and Harrison R. Merrill
FC 11 N-02
44
Harrison R. Merrill
The Skies of Home
I've been away all summer and as homesick as could be
Canyon of the Forgotten
FC 11 B-60
18
Virginia Bennett
Darn Hard Days
We were too darn busy to stop and think. Survival demanded full attention to our chores. Too tired, even to see our country on the brink Of involvement in the War to end all wars.