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
Poet of the Big Horns
FC 11 R-15
53
Don Rowland
Noodle Head
Sleepy little Noodle Head
Charles Badger Clark Poetry from The Pacific Monthly
FC 11 C-26
57
Charles Badger Clark
A Tied Maverick
Lay on the iron! The tie holds fast; And my wild record closes.
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
239
Jacob Gough
A Plea For "Castles in the Air"
Amid the myriad troubles that meet us day by day
Cowboy Poetry: The Gathering
FC 11 W-28
214
Michael Whitaker
Backside
It's funny how things change as they years do pass on by.
More Hilarious Happenings and Other Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 M-63
42
E.W. "Roy" Miller
A Sure Way To Go Broke
In the fifty's in Colorado, I'm ridin' a colt for the boss; he wasn't an ornery kind of colt, just a typical young spooky hoss. On this pony, I'm puttin' on miles,
dirt, gate, fawn, dollar, train, dime
Poems from the Alamo Saloon
FOLK COLL 11 L-45
120
Paul Thomas Lillard
Contentment
I find contentment just sittin' around pullin' ticks off my hound.
content, peace, nothing
Missouri Cowboy Poetry
Leroy Watts
FC 11 M-46
247
Cliff Sexton
The Master's Hand in the Spring
I believe it's the time of year
Dry Creek Rhymes
FC 11 D-11
44
John Cutler Dofflemyer
brandin' pen
homer brought the head loop to brandin's.
Dry Crik Review (Double Environmental Issue): fall/winter 1992/93, 2 copies
John C. Dofflemyer
FC 11 D-20
16
Lyn DeNaeyer
The spirts are watching
Sunset's glory is fading as the first starts wink in the west.
Pat Richardson, Unhobbled
FOLK COLL 11 R-50
69
Pat Richardson
The Coyote Trap
I had a little ranch leased in Petaluma, and when we first moved there some neighbors felt sorry for us and would pay us surprise visits. They had two of the meanest, most destructive little brats I'd ever seen.
trap, coyote, revenge
Open Range: Poetry of the Reimagined West
Laurie Wagner Buyer & WC Jameson
FC 11 W-30
62
Holy Woman Tree
Story.
Sun and Saddle Leather
FC 11 C-12
125
Charles Badger Clark
Southwestern June
Lazy little hawse, it's noon.
June, spring, relaxation, wasting time, laziness
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
Livestock Man
FOLK COLL 11 A-22
10
Amy Hale Auker
Teach Me To See
Born blind, And didn't even know it. Thought I could see, thought I was, missed not only the minutiae but the broad vistas.
sight, blind, view
In Camp And Trench: Songs of the Fighting Forces
FC 11 B-55
16
Berton Braley
Names
Call him Sammy or call him Jack, Call him Johnny or Ted or Mac,
Horseshoes, Cowsocks & Duckfeet
FC 11 B-47
37
Baxter Black
Coyote Cowboy Observations
Memories of the XIT
FC 11 L-07
2
Rosell Lewis
XIT Cowboys
The cowboys that rode on the old XIT; Were a happy and fearless crew.
Signature of the Sun: Southwest Verse, 1900-1950
Mabel Major and T.M. Pearce
FC 11 M-02
62
Jennie Harris Oliver
In the Desert
Three wolves crept out of the hills one night.
Up Sims Creek, The Third Trip
FOLK COLL 11 N-18
163
Rod Nelson
Pushing Snow
It's that time of year again That gets me down in the mouth. For how I pity all my friends That winter way down South.
snow, shovel, thaw, south
The Song of the Hunter
FC 11 L-40
71
Robert L. Laumeyer
Come My Love
Come my love - our passioins to renew Let me show you, how much I love you. The best of plots are best at the end. Let us the rest of life, on love depend. (end)
TThe Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
336
Olive Bell
The Outcast's Dream
From morn till noon the golden glow
Wild Prairie Roses: A Collection of Verse by North Dakotans
Shirley J. Mikkelson
FC 11 M-11
80
Nancy Broyles
passions
passions
passions, feelings, moments.
Custer and Other Poems
FC 11 W-02
21
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Thanksgiving
We walk on starry fields of white
One Cowboy's Faith, Family & Friends
FOLK COLL 11 M-74
170
Roy R Moore Jr
Sumac - Pretty but Itchy
One day while gatherin' cows On Dennett Creek Riding Penny, had an experience That I did not seek
itch, blister, trip, sumac
Trail Dust of a Maverick
FC 11 B-15
168
E.A. Brininstool
Christmas Week in Sagebrush
It is Chris'mus week in Sagebrush, and the old town's only store.
Christmas, holiday, celebration, spend, money, cold, snow, winter, festivity