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
A Montana Cowboy's Book
FC 11 A-05
28
Don "Cheese" Akerlow
Fat Calved Women
I always wanted to be a cowboy; And play with cowboy toys; Horses and thin air, mountain mornings.
independence, bar, hat, fat, fast cars
From a Cowboy's Point of View
FC 11 H-52
122
Dick Hays
The Recruiting Officer
There's lots of talk around the bunk When our day is done, As to what the boys are going to hunt When the war is won. Some talk of deer and elk and moose,
Poetic Works of Henry Lawson
David McKee Wright
FC 11 L-24
55
Henry Lawson
Out Back
The old year went and the new returned, in the withering weeks of drought.
Saddle Pals
FC 11 S-56
21
Don't you believe it
When I was a kid about twenty, I thought I new everything, till I met a guy on the corner who sold me a beautiful ring.
On the Ranch
FC 11 J-20
11
Billy James
Conversation With an Ant
Me and the boys had gone one night Down into town, and was we tight! We drank so much of that town's booze I thought our way back home we'd lose. If my horse hadn't known the way, I surely would 'a had to stay.
"Pull Your Hat Down and Come-a-Ridin'!": Photos and Ridin' Rhymes
FC 11 K-14
17
Gayle S. Klein
The Barrel Racer
My horse and I have practiced and now it's time; That the ole boy proved he can win a dime.
The Fence That Me and Shorty Built
FC 11 S-49
61
Red Steagall
I'm Sleepin' in My Leggins' Tonight
There's a big storm rollin' in.
Tokens in an Indian Graveyard
FC 11 H-57
63
Linda Hussa
Cutthroat Trout
Belly fat with eggs she looks up through the limits of her world. Infinity changes with the season.
egg, season, world
Ol' Mike's Philosophy and Foolishness
Mike Oatman
FOLK COLL 11 O-14
118
Anonymous
This Is A Family
A place of warmth when the world is cold... a place of safety when the world is hostile... a place of light when the world is dark. THIS IS A FAMILY.
family, description, togetherness
Holaday and Hampton Poetry
Hampton Livestock Commission Co.
FC 11 H-39
8
The Holaday & Hampton Poet (Bruce Kiskaddon)
Team Work
Two hosses that are right good friends, will often stand turned end fer end
Too Thick to Drink?Too Thin to Plow: Poems of the Cow Country
FC 11 M-04
21
John R. Markley
The Salebarn Bull
I needed a bull to turn with my cows.
Blood Sister, I Am To These Fields
FC 11 H-56
16
Linda Hussa
The Old Pair
That crane with the bum leg is back, he told her as he washed his hands at the sink. She stood beside him peeling off long leaves
quilt, wings, sky, mating
The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses
FC 11 P-16
158
Banjo Paterson
The Road to Old Man's Town
Missouri Cowboy Poetry
Leroy Watts
FC 11 M-46
256
Cliff Sexton
Rodeo Man
I heard a voice
Coming Out Of The Cowboy Closet (Cowboy Poetry, Pictures, and Other Stuff)
FC 11 C-56
39
D.L. Chance
The Skunk
I was told of an incident that happened on a roundup by the old cook who saw the whole thing.
Muses Of The Ranges
FC 11 D-28
20
John C. Dofflemyer
Twenty Years
Twenty years between one war and the next I am alive neither man nor boy but both. A man's brow perhaps receding hair and
child, older, growing, singing, heart, oak
Over the Hills and Prairies of Wyoming: Stories & Poems of the West by a Pioneer
FC 11 W-05
109
Maude Wenonah Willford
"Do I Want to Plant a Garden?"
Do I want to plant a garden?
There Ain't Much Romance in the Life of Us Cows
FC 11 J-09
25
Bill Jones
Livin' in the Wasteland
I work for this dude outfit.
television, contentedness, wilderness
Best Loved Poems of the American West
John J. and Barbara T. Gregg
FC 11 G-09
232
Ambrose Bierce
Black Bart, PO8
Welcome, good friend, as you have served your term.
crime, conviction, sinful life, faith, regrets, Welcker, Plunkett, Brooks, villain, Parnassus, Pegasus, robbing coaches
Musings from Cowboy Country
FOLK COLL 11 R-46
109
George Rhoades
Rememberin'
I remember Another December When winds blew cold, Skies were dismal gray, Trees had lost their leaves On that melancholy day.
memory, sale, ranch, winter
A Cowboy on the Last Frontier
FC 11 M-24
84
Bill May
Progress
Our mountains once so wild, where the Indians used to roam
The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses
FC 11 P-16
224
Banjo Paterson
The Gundaroo Bullock
Cowboy Poetry Matters: From Abilene to the Mainstream: Contemporary Cowboy Writ.
Robert McDowell
FC 11 M-54
29
J.B. Allen
Reasons for Stayin'
What's the myst'ry of the wagon? Asked a towny, green as grass, as he vis'ted on a dreary autumn day
Rhymes of Today and Yesterday!
FC 11 G-17
50
June Brander Gilman
As Time Goes By
The clock on the wall keeps ticking, the seconds so rapidly away.
Cowboy: A Roundup of Verse
FC 11 C-17
16
J.T. Crozier
A Little Hope
There's a ridge that's runnin' somewhere.
truth, disappointment, hope, God