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
Dry Crik Rview: Spring 1992
John C. Dofflemyer
FC 11 D-20
51
Jim Green
The Morgan Place On Dry Wood Creek
What was his name, that guy who bought the old Morgan homestead to raise draught horses when almost everybody had gone over to tractors?
winter, floorboards, beam, spring
75 Years! My Time In Rhyme
FC 11 M-65
109
E.W. "Roy" Miller
Are We Afraid To Die?
Back about thirty years ago or maybe longer than that we were back in South Dakota in the Black Hill is where we were at. I walked out of the house on night I don't recall just why but I came to the hasty conclusion I wasn't prepared to die! The heavens were lit up like I had never seen before
Where Cattle Roam
FC 11 S-15
14
Al Summers
The Old Ranch Cook
I've come dang near forgettin' the grub
Winter Wages
FC 11 H-51
27
Barney Hill
Oren and the Bear
Young Oren, Buster, and little Joe was a ridin makin summer wages aroundin up ole mossy horns that in a zoo woulda been in cages
Harry Tales: Volume I
FC 11 H-23
2
Les Harry
Mother
We all have had a mother.
Christianity, belief, Eve, Eden, motherhood, prayer, God, religion
Fair Girls and Gray Horses
FC 11 O-12
10
Will H. Ogilvie
A Broken Web
A spider floated a silken thread In the grey of a misty morn To fetter a rose to a rosebud red, A bloom to a bloom forlorn.
Cowboy Poetry: Cloud Watchers
FC 11 F-16
131
Rolf M. Flake
The Auctioneer
I'd loaded the last of the yearling steers-- I was shippin' 'em in to the sale. All my phone calls to find a buyer Had come to no avail. So I shipped 'em to the sale expectin' the worst-- 'Cause cattle prices were sure on the rocks. I just knew that I'd sure take a beating And add to my education--by "hard knocks."
Just Thinkin'
FC 11 S-17
7
Georgie Connell Sicking
To a Pal
Old pal, I have left you,
A Rancher's Writings
FC 11 S-07
47
Harold D. Sloan
Greetings
Once again the Yuletide spirit
Open Range: Collected Poems (1: Rhymes of the Ranges, 1924)
Bill Siems
FC 11 K-24
Bruce Kiskaddon
Saddle Up And R-i-i-i-d-e More Cowboy Poetry
FC 11 R-40
2
Jim Ross
Picky, Picky, Picky
A strange rider stopped at mealtime To pass the time of day; He was invited in to luncheon, His horse got oats and hay.
Hidden Trails
FC 11 C-21
22
Austin Corcoran
Lo! The Poor Cowboy
The cowboys were riding the ranges content.
writers, movies, Hollywood, words, cameras, motion pictures
Buck Ramsey's Poetry Inventory
Buck Ramsey
FOLK COLL 11 R-48
115
Buck Ramsey
Hat In Hand, Approaching The Dieties
Sunning sunning inner prisms in the prison of my eyes Pictures pink pictures purple Sun across the slight cloud skies
sun, farm, life
Tangled Up In The West
FC 11 H-50
49
David Haskell
Tangled Up In The West
When grandpa cleared the sage a hundred years ago, He said, "It was harder to train cows back then."
Corral Dust
FC 11 F-05
33
Robert "Bob" Henry Fletcher
The Wagon Train
Since these days of automobiles, flivvers, limousines, and sich.
teamsters, wagon train, freight, team, speed, gasoline, automobile, progress, change, power
Wolf Tracks on the Welcome Mat
FC 11 Z-03
8
Paul Zarzyski
Birds in the stove
Twice I tried to shin the rusty steel well casing, 25 feet of vertical cannon barrel
Voices From the Range
FC 11 S-34
5
Rhoda Sivell
Come With Me To The Old Range
Come with me to the old range Just for an hour or so; You'll hear the call of the range stock And the voice of the Chinook blow. Blowing down o'er the wind-swept hills Where the pups of the grey wolf play And their dens lie deep in the hidden steep Of the cut-banks far away.
Saddle For A Throne
FC 11 O-13
223
Will Ogilvie
Dead Roses
They lie in dim corners with dust on the leaves, each withered brown bloom with the story it weaves of sweethearts and sorrow, of doubt and despair- a gift from her girdle,
tear, cheer, fate, unconfessed, blossom
Stubby Pencil Poems of Great Basin Musin's
n/a
FOLK COLL 11 G-45
7
G. B. Griffith
Washboard Road
Radio's on but I can't make out the song. It's drummed out by the truck's loud, monotonous tune. Testing the nerves as it always seems to go on for far too long. Our trip down that washboard road can't end, none too soon.
music, washboard, noise
Rawhide Rhymes
FC 11 B-05
135
S. Omar Barker
Ranchman's Widow
She's got ones on a doctor.
mother, children, daughter, Latin, education, school, knowledge, lawyer, ranch, foreman, Dad, father, memories, saddle, pride, brainy daughter, longing for the old days, riding men, success, ambitiousness, cowboy son, tenderness, cowpuncher dad,
Dry Crik Review (Environmental Issue): Fall 1991
John C. Dofflemyer
FC 11 D-20
68
John C. Dofflemyer
parity
The rarity of idle time and space to spend it in is taxed along with cycled salt in sun by books of regulation, legal culprits in disguise- where there ain't room to hide or place to run.
enslave, dollar, predator, nation, heart, birth, believe
Graining the Mare: The Poetry of Ranch Women
Teresa Jordan
FC 11 J-10
144
Myrt Wallis
Bittercreek Woman
Bittercreek has always been; A place of women.
Poetry of Ranch Women
Rhymes Along the Way
FC 11 L-39
98
Robert L. Laumeyer
Think
If any of my poems got you to think, then you have filled my heart with glee. The objective was to inspire thought not to make you agree with me.
The First Twenty Five Years: Songs and Stories
Dave Stamey
FOLK COLL 11 S-76
32
Dave Stamey
The Bones of Benny Gray
And the wife he left on Cedar Creek with that old ranch to run She sweats and strains from break of day until the setting sun
bones, death, cowboy
Rhymes from the Rangeland
FC 11 B-09
185
Wesley Beggs
Farewell to My Saddle and Rope
I will now quit the range of the cattle.
Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christianity, religion, belief, God, afterlife, death, farewell, hope