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FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection

Date of Items: 1890-present
Register Prepared by: Randy Williams and Susan Gross, April 2004
Register Updated by: Randy Williams, 23 December 2009
Excel database transfered to MYSQL and uploaded (replacing PHP data): Colin Jackson, Fall 2010
MYSQL database updated: Randy Williams, January 2012
Linear Feet:20

Historical Note & Provenance

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.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of 20 linear feet of books on cowboy poetry, including press and self published works. The collection can be accessed through USU Libraries online catalog.


As well, poem titles and keywords found in each book in the collection are included in the database below. To use, type in the search term. Tip: Try and use an uncommon word from the poem to ensure less "hits." For instance, if you enter "boots" you will get many hits; but if you enter "bones" you will most liley get fewer "hits" or poems and find the item you seek faster. To return to the search page, click "home" at the bottom of the page.

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Poetry table.

First Previous Next Last
IDBook TitleComposerIndexPagesAuthorPoem TitleFirst LinesKeywords
22164 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 3 Donald L. Welter That Man Is Ill Did you ever see a hunter, didn't have the fidgets bad? As the spring is drawing nearer, you can tell, his nerve's been bad.
22165 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 5 Donald L. Welter Hunter's Warning Have you ever climbed a mountain, in the search of wiley game? All alone, in nature's Eden; feel so small, it has no name?
22166 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 7 Donald L. Welter Ode To The Selway Hunter High in the Bitterroot mountains at the Selway River's source, you can spot the golden eagle as he swoops, careens, and soars.
22167 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 11 Donald L. Welter Mr. Chimpmunk You're a daunty, saucy fellow, as you dance across the root. Sure the cutest of GOD'S creatures, and don't seem to give a hoot.
22168 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 13 Donald L. Welter Empire Lost When you broke up on the ridge top, and set down, to catch your breath. As you sat and gazed around you, heard you, silence, as in death.
22169 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 15 Donald L. Welter Just Musing When I was just a little boy, there's a dream, I always had. Of a ranch, up in the mountains, with some fishing, for a lad.
22170 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 17 Donald L. Welter Luck When your thinking starts to wander, from the tasks that lay at hand. And you look to yonder mountain, where that bull elk, keeps his band.
22171 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 19 Donald L. Welter Indecision Here I sit, with pen in hand, a' dreaming, of some wit! That I could put to poetry, but, I can't think of it.
22172 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 21 Donald L. Welter Winter's Toll As I'm sitting here, I ponder, of the snow that's getting deep. How the elk herd's going to winter, and the bear, that's gone to sleep.
22173 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 23 Donald L. Welter Some-Day When you go up to Alaska, where they say, the snow fleas play. Where the Sour-doughs aren't flap-jacks; forty-niners, had their day.
22174 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 25 Donald L. Welter The Challenge When you hear a distant bugle, but you can't quite hear the grunt. Then you know you'll do some hiking, before you're close enough to hunt.
22175 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 27 Donald L. Welter Verda How well, I can remember of, those times, upon the prairie. You were, Uncle Bill or Jean, Vern and I, Tom and Harry?
22176 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 29 Donald L. Welter Old Tucker Old Tucker was my tail mule, the best you'll ever see. Thirteen hands, of dynamite, but you couldn't call him mean.
22177 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 31 Donald L. Welter Pack String The squeek of saddle leather, and the ring of sharp shod hooves. A pack string on the rockslide, loaded heavy, way he moves.
22178 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose Donald L. Welter FC 11 W-30 33 S. Omar Barker Purt Near They called him "Purtnear Perkins," for unless the booger lied, He'd purt near, done most everything, that he had ever tried.
22179 Antlers in the Treetops or Who Goosed the Moose FC 11 W-38 35 Donald L. Welter The Piddling Pup A farmer's dog, came into town, his Christian name, was Rex. A noble pedigree, had he, unusual, was his text.
22180 Melodious Poems From the Hills FC 11 B-58 13 Sandia Bill When I Am Dead When I am dead, don't cry for me; Just wrap me in a shroud And burn me, that the vapors may Help form some lovely cloud.
22181 Melodious Poems From the Hills FC 11 B-58 14 Sandia Bill The Ghost I sat on a log in the wild-wood, As the moon sailed high in the sky, And was about to enjoy the scenery When the ghost of a poet came by.
22182 Melodious Poems From the Hills FC 11 B-58 15 Sandia Bill The Dying Monarch Here stands the monarch of the forest, Slowly expiring on the mountainside, Who, only a few hours ago, Was the embodiment of health and pride.
22183 Melodious Poems From the Hills FC 11 B-58 16 Sandia Bill The Little Deserette Wild and gray the desert lay, Joe wondered how anyone could love it; Scorchign hot, as bleak and dry As the sky above it.
22184 Melodious Poems From the Hills FC 11 B-58 18 Sandia Bill Where is God's Home? I have pointed with pride and honor To the great celestial dome And said with satisfaction: "Yonder is God's home."
22185 Melodious Poems From the Hills FC 11 B-58 19 Sandia Bill Cure for Depression Give me a home among the mountains with a river near my door, Where walls of rustic granite fringe the crooked shore.
22186 Melodious Poems From the Hills FC 11 B-58 20 Sandia Bill The Ole Ranch House Thar's a ranch house in the canyon, Among the pinons and the pines, Whose yard is all kivered With wild Johnny gourd-vines.
22187 Melodious Poems From the Hills FC 11 B-58 21 Sandia Bill Blue Skies and Green Mountains Blue skies and green mountains In the land of the west, And a home with a true friend That you love and treat best.
22188 Melodious Poems From the Hills FC 11 B-58 22 Sandia Bill In Memory of the Best Loved Man In Bethlehem's suburbs In a humble man's barn, in an old rustic manger Among fodder and corn, On a calm starry night, A baby was born.