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
The Adventures of Ole and Andy
FOLK COLL 11 A-26
45
Clarence "Andy" Anderson
We Find the Lost Gold Mine
Ole was showing me some souveniers he had collected on his many journeys. "Here is some fool's gold? It looks like real gold," I replied.
gold, yukon, rainbow, mine
Cowboy Poetry from Utah
Carol A. Edison
FC 11 E-06
87
Floyd A. Jensen
The Day I Roped a Deer
We was sittin' drinkin' coffee.
Utah, winter, deer, roping
Muddled Meanderings in an Outhouse
FC 11 R-11
36
Bob Ross
The Super Market
The weather comes in through those big cracks
Horsin' Around
FC 11 C-53
4
Stu Campbell
Teton Shuffleboard
Prose: When a cowboy sees somebody walking toward him with two shovels, he's got a mighty good idea his roping and riding is over for the rest of the day.
Tumbleweeds and Corral Dust
FC 11 M-25
19
Vern C. Mortensen
It Matters Not
It matters not just where I like, nor when the time or where to die
death
Ranch Tales of the Rockies
FC 11 E-03
94
Harry Ellard
The Passing of the Buffalo
The buffalo, in herds of millions strong.
buffalo, progress
Roped and Tied
FC 11 W-11
30
Mary Mabel Wirries
Cholla
Folks say the cholla doesn't jump
Poetic Works of Henry Lawson
David McKee Wright
FC 11 L-24
114
Henry Lawson
A Voice from the City
On Western plain and eastern hill.
Cowboy Poems and Outright Lies
FC 11 S-44
18
Hal Swift
My First Rodeo
One day when I was about six-and-a-half.
Song of the Cowboys
N. Howard Thorp
FC 11 T-11
31
author unknown
The Cowboy at Church
Some time ago- two weeks or more
Songs of the Workaday World
FC 11 B-54
41
Berton Braley
Ready!
here we are, gentlemen; here's the whole gang of us, pretty near through with the job we are on; size up our work--it will give you the hang of u s. South to Balboa and north to Colon.
Sun and Saddle Leather
FC 11 C-12
136
Charles Badger Clark
The Locoed Horse
As I was ridin' all alone.
horse, loco weed, death
Corral Dust
FC 11 F-05
10
Bob Fletcher
In Glacier Park
Sez the she dude to the ranger.
glacier, ignorance, boulders
Unhobbled: Cowboy Poetry, Stories, and Outright Lies
FC 11 R-31
18
Pat Richardson
North Dakota Sweatshop and Saddle Co.
Memories of Old Time Chisholm Trail: Romance in Verse by H. H. Halsell
FC 11 H-02
6
H. H. Halsell
To the Cattle Rustler Killing a Lobo Wolf
Born to be a cattle rustler.
wildlife, wolf, past
Missouri Cowboy Poetry
Leroy Watts
FC 11 M-46
27
Arnold "Buzz" Benson
Create a Legend
While the waning moon slides down the slopes of the western sky.
The Night Ol' Flukie Foundered
FC 11 G-39
18
DW Groethe
Breakin' a Sweat
They say Buck never broke a sweat at any honest labor. Spent his life a-dodgin' work, although, he had a neighbor, who thought he'd caught him in the act of fixin' up his fence.
Still in the Mountains
FC 11 D-18
12
John C. Dofflemyer
Easter 2003
Like the prow of a ship tipped upcanyon bucking the straits of weather and grass, the Killdeer cricle and cry like sea gulls
Prairie Poetry: Cowboy Verse of Kansas
Jim Hoy
FOLK COLL 11 H-62
76
Dwight Burgess
The Old Saddle
It was just an old saddle, The trappin' was tattered and torn. It kinda seemed like he'd had it, Since back before Moses was born.
saddle, worn, experience
Saddle For A Throne
FC 11 O-13
316
Will Ogilvie
A Leaf From Macquarie
A gumleaf from Warren, all withered and brown, Fluttered out from a letter today, and my heart has gone back where Macquarie winds down by dusty red stock-route and sleepy grey town
overlander, friend, gift, mystical, tears
Buck Ramsey, Texas Spirit
David Kelley
FOLK COLL 11 R-47
94
Various
Featured at the Bar-D Ranch
We learned by look and feel, not studies - Unless it was the moves of pards Ahouseback, eloquent as bards. It was a spark, and we would fan it While riding favored by good winds With favored ancients, proper ends. The owners merely mined the granite; We were sculptors of the herd. Yes, ours the poetry; theirs the word.
magazine, poetry, profile
Song of the Cowboys
N. Howard Thorp
FC 11 T-11
44
author unknown
The Cowboy's Life
The bawl of a steer
Ranch Verses
FC 11 C-09
57
William Lawrence Chittenden
Man
Man lives and dies! What more know we?
youth, old-age, mortality
An Aussie Turned Cowboy Wife
FC 11 S-45
34
Marie W. Smith
September Aspens
I linger midst the aspens.
The Broncho Book
FC 11 C-13
71
Captain Jack Crawford
Come Back, Papa
My heart was bowed down with sadness.
child, parent, wayward father