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
27
Wesley Beggs
Oh! Those Days in North Dakota
Away up in North Dakota, in the year of eighty-three.
1883, game, big game, Dickinson, Bad Lands, nature, city, cities, Charley Tear, cowboy artist, Charlie Russell, Montana, Great Falls, Harry Snow, Morgan Frank, friends, Coming King, Christ, belief, religion
Horses Women Mountains
FC 11 R-17
48
David Roberts
Dan Shew
Dan Shew comes up every so often
Rimrock and Juniper
FC 11 K-31
93
E.J. Kirchoff
Love Letterss
When I awakened this mornin' I'm feelin' so tired and old. On the gate of the ranch there's a little square sign. And a single word says "SOLD". I lay for a time there just thinkin'. And hatin' to get out of bed. And dreadin' the job I was facin'. But the little sign meant what it said.
Rhymes of the Ranges
FC 11 K-04
76
Bruce Kiskaddon
Liz
When I hear folks talk and figger what they think their car can do.
car, cars, Model T, reminisce, roads, pavement, driving
The Mystique Of Grouse Creek
FC 11 S-64
37
Elden K. Shaw
Our Model "A"
It was after use of the term horseless carriage, But before P.C. banned words that disparage, When a blond girl still could be called dizzy, And motor cars either a flivver or a tin lizzie.
Signature of the Sun: Southwest Verse, 1900-1950
Mabel Major and T.M. Pearce
FC 11 M-02
145
John Gould Fletcher
Down the Mississippi
Dull masses of dense green.
Burnt Leather
FC 11 H-16
40
Jack Horan
A Lady's Hoss
Bill Steele had a buckskin hoss.
horse, rodeo, bucking bronco, riding
Red Hills Malarky
FC 11 W-14
34
Sam Wilson
Me and the I.R.S.
I had a phone call the other day, it was from the I.R.S.
Brush Poppers: Original Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 P-38
41
Dale Page
The Widow's Mite
When the widow awoke, she donned slippers and cloak And coaxed fire from the black iron stove 'Cause a norther rolled in,
Mark 12, Sunday, God, sorry, bless, shame
The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse, 1870-1885
Slason Thompson
FC 11 T-04
78
author unknown
Fairy Facts
Out of the mists of childhood,
Back at the Ranch
FC 11 S-29
4
Colen H. Sweeten Jr.
Blizzard
I found him with his hat pulled down
Poems of American Cowboys & Nature
FC 11 C-04
49
Bob A. Carson
Rolling Along
Rolling along, a tumble weed, rolling along.
tumbleweed
Spur Tracks & Buffalo Chips: Cowboy Verse and Country Chartling
FC 11 S-19
70
Bob Schild
Mother's Love
Oh, how precious the mother's love,
Songs and Poems of the Old West by an Old Cowboy
FC 11 S-12
1
James H. Stevenson
It's Calling Me
O'er the hills the evening sun is falling
Cowboy Lyrics
FC 11 C-03
151
Robert V. Carr
Green Prairies
Green prairies, green prairies all drenched in the rain.
prairie, light, shadow
Horsefeathers
FC 11 R-06
20
Johnny Ritch
Out Bull Mountain Way
A place on the plain.
Saddle For A Throne
FC 11 O-13
94
Will Ogilvie
How We Won The Ribbon
Come and look around my office- floors are littered, walls are hung with the treasures and the trophies of the days when I was young;
idle, ribbon, glow, beauty, desire, spurs
Prairie Wife
FC 11 E-20
117
Elizabeth Ebert
Spring Song for the Mature Woman
If I were young and slim again I'd greet the soft spring rains With purely pagan ritual I'd run down misty lanes. A dryad, naiad, oread Depending on locale.
A Living Tradition -- South Dakota Songwriters Songbook Volume 1
George B. German Music Archives
FC 11 G-02
118
David Diamond
Hobo John
Once in a while you could see old John stumblin' into town;
Frontier Ballads
FC 11 H-06
71
Joseph Mills Hanson
The Song of the Winchester
Full heir to the twist-bored yager gun with its half-inch slug.
gun, rifle
Rhymes o' a Driftin' Cowboy
FC 11 H-01
138
Chuck Haas
Un-sartin'
Boys, I ain't no hand t' scold.
uncertain, widow, marriage, retirement, aging
Bell-Bottoms to Boots
FC 11 W-07
104
Joe "Blackie" Wilson
Doggerel Brewing
(He) "A winter moon golden pale, peeping...
Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering
Hal Cannon
FC 11 C-14
123
Ross Knox
The Dying Times
Any man makin' a living by punchin' cows.
Western Verse or Worse
FC 11 F-10
42
Rolf M. Flake
Come and Get It
When I was a kid we always ate.
food, meals, eating
Poetic Works of Henry Lawson
David McKee Wright
FC 11 L-24
159
Henry Lawson
Cross-Roads
Once more I write a line to you.