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
Muses Of The Ranges
FC 11 D-28
75
John C. Dofflemyer
Whoa There, Son
I fear I pack a cowboy's heart thet beats alone in love with pain, whoa there, son; we are not apart. He moves so free with Nat'ral art to spots,
wildness, smart, heart, unfolds, clouds
Cowboy Poetry: Horse Tracks Through The Sage
FC 11 H-47
125
Sunny Hancock
Waterloo
Old Jess caught up his horse one day, rode out across the hill, He was riding on his rancho just outside of Porterville. The wind came up and he got cold so he put on his coat When just across the ridge he hearrrrd the blatting of a goooooooat.
Poems of American Cowboys & Nature
FC 11 C-04
48
Bob A. Carson
Lightning Dream
I tell you all this did but seem.
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes by S. Omar Barker (1894-1985)
Jodie and Bob Phillips
FC 11 B-44
138
S. Omar Barker
Bear Ropin' Buckaroo
Now ropin' bears (says Uncle Sid) is sure a heap of fun.
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
The Down to Earth Collection
FC 11 S-71
26
Mike Sweet
Smokey and I Were Bandits
Ornery is the only term to date that can describe this friend of mine who lived to aggravate. His nature was far from mild and I think he just loved being wild
Horse Tracks
FC 11 K-30
76
E.J. Kirchoff
Changes
I growed up 'round cows and horses. Spent a lifetime on the range. And if my life I could re-do, There isn't much I'd cahnge. And I'm glad that I was born Before this modern age
Grand River Tales and Other Poems
FC 11 E-13
29
Elizabeth Ebert
Going Through Calgary
We'd been on a trip, just the two of us.
Rhymes Along the Way
FC 11 L-39
79
Robert L. Laumeyer
Better
I have no need for a better pen. What I need is a better mind. Blacker ink is not my yen, it's the truth I hunt to find. I do not need a bigger book what I need is a clear thought. It's not a long poem for which I look
Confessions of A Cowboy Poet
FC 11 C-52
75
Bob Christensen
Cowman's Lament
Competition makes the world go 'round, this fact I'll not deny. But as I watch those cattle guzzle feed, I have to wonder, why we must compete with turkeys and other feathered stock whose cycles last just a few months? To me it seems a crock.
Horsesense and Nonsense
FOLK COLL 11 J-26
25
LeRoy Jones
Cowboy
You talk about a Cowboy, and in your mind you see, This yahoo wearin' high heeled boots and standin' six foot three,
history, father, cattle
The Medicine Keepers
FC 11 A-10
50
J.B. Allen
Winter Wonder
Hub was huntin' winter quarters and the widder needed warmth, Fer she weren't the plump young thing she once had been, So they taken up together, paid the preacher what was due, While the gossips wagged their tongues and double chins.
Songs of the American West
Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen
FC 11 L-10
81
Charley L. Grant
The Peninsula Pike
There's a railroad they call the Peninsula Pike.
Megler, Holman, Ilwaco Junction, rusty lines, rotten ties, spikes, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific
The Pony Express: An Epic of the Old West
FC 11 M-22
36
Charles Rendell Mabey
The West and Romance
West, west, I speed, to the beckoning West
Utah, Mormons
The Sunlight Kid and Other Western Verses
FC 11 S-09
77
Lawrence B. Smith
Slim Riley's Dude Ranch
Slim Riley got th' inchin' bug, an' finally he 'lows
Graining the Mare: The Poetry of Ranch Women
Teresa Jordan
FC 11 J-10
122
Lisa Quinlan
You Ask
If I was lonely; As a little girl.
Poetry of Ranch Women
The Ranch: Poems of the West
FC 11 L-09
71
Elliott C. Lincoln
The Misanthrope
A big blue fly went buzzin' in the Dark Horse Livery door.
From My Window and Other Poems
FC 11 H-48
30
Yvonne Hollenbeck
How To Cut Taxes
Dear President Bush, There are aliens here by the millions ...illegal, and they're all around; the Border Patrol is out searching but hardly a one's ever found.
Still Rhymin' on the Range
Mike Puhallo, Wendy Liddle & Brian Brannon
FC 11 P-25
27
Brian Brannon
The Guide's Dilemma
Have you ever walked a glacier.
Horse-Thief Gulch
FC 11 H-07
11
Samuel Harkness
Horse Thief
I lie so close to the surface.
death, dead, grave, ghost, criminal, law, crimes, outlaw
Tangled Up In The West
FC 11 H-50
41
David Haskell
Man's Best Friend
Well, it was my first month on the job, So how could I have known?
JB The Circle
Duward Campbell and Chuck Milner
FC 11 A-17
56
J.B. Allen
Small Mysterys
Ol red buck singlefooted thru the sea of prickly pear never needin spur or rein to hold the trail
Cowboy Poetry: Classic Rhymes & Prose by D.J. O'Malley, The N Bar Kid White
Janice and Mason Coggin
FC 11 O-06
111
D.J. O'Malley
The Coming of the Second U.S. Cavalry to Fort Keogh, Montana Territory - prose
Western Poetry: In this land of little rain
FC 11 M-56
26
Jane Ambrose Morton
Home for Christmas
Our Christmas tradtion brought family together. We homed to the ranch house regardless of the weather.
Cowboy: A Roundup of Verse
FC 11 C-17
17
J.T. Crozier
Images
Ever watched.
nature, ghosts, fog, mysterious