Collection of poems written by cowboys in western states, collected in 1984 by various folklorists in an effort to collect and document cowboy poetry and to present a cowboy poetry event.
The Western States Cowboy Poetry Collection consists of six boxes of cowboy poetry submitted by poets and collector from: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and Canada. The collection is arranged by state (country) and collector/poet
The Western States Cowboy Poetry Collection, housed at Utah State University, grew out of a concerted effort by western state folklorists in the early 1980s to collect, document, and present cowboy poetry. The idea for this work grew out of meetings of state folklorists in Washington D.C. at the National Endowment of the Arts Folk Arts Program and at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, a meeting with the Nevada Humanities Committee with various western state folklorists, and meetings of state folklorists at Utah State University in conjunction with the university's Fife Folklore Conference in 1983
Out of discussions at these meetings, the group decided to take Arizona folklorist Jim Griffiths's suggestion to present cowboy poetry within the western states. Hal Cannon, then Director of the Utah Arts Council's Folk Arts Program, and Steve Siporin, then Folk Arts Coordinator for the Idaho Commission on the Arts, wrote a grant from the Institute of the American West (in Sun Valley, Idaho) to the NEA Folk Arts Program to collect and document cowboy poetry and to present a cowboy poetry event. The grant was awarded and Hal Cannon was hired as program coordinator by the Institute of the American West to manage the grant and fieldwork. State folklorists conducted fieldwork with cowboys and ranchers in their state. For western states that did not have a state folklorist, Hal Cannon hired folklore fieldworkers to conduct the fieldwork; Gary Stanton was the primary researcher. As well, some of the collection came from a wide reaching "letter to the editor" campaign to rural newspapers in the West conducted by Hal Cannon
The poetry gathered during this project makes up the Western States Cowboy Poetry Collection housed in the Fife Folklore Archives at Utah State University. (Along with cowboy poetry, many cowboy poetry books were gathered during this project with support from the Skaggs Foundation; these books are also housed in the Fife Folklore Archives.) From this important fieldwork project came the impetus for the first Cowboy Poetry Gathering held in January of 1985 in Elko, Nevada, the heart of Buckaroo Country, with support from the Northeastern Nevada Museum and the Northern Nevada Community College
Folklorists involved in the fieldwork project, and the states in which they conducted fieldwork, include:
David Brose, Colorado Hal Cannon, New Mexico and Southern Colorado Dennis Coehlo, Wyoming Carol Edison, Utah Meg Glaser, Nevada Jim Griffith, Arizona Suzi Jones, Oregon Sharron Kahin, Wyoming Mike Korn, Montana Cyd McMullen, California Steve Siporin, Idaho Gary Stanton, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah
Chronological by year
Open to public research. To access the collection a patron must have the following information: collection number, box number, folder number and item number. The materials do not circulate and are available in USU's Special Collections and Archives. Patrons must sign and comply with the USU Special Collections and Archives Use Agreement and Reproduction Order form as well as any restrictions placed by the collector or informant(s)
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Utah State University Libraries, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright
Permission to publish material from the Western states cowboy poetry collection must be obtained from the Curator of the Fife Folklore Archives and/or the Special Collections Department Head
Funded by a grant from the NEA Folk Arts Program, awarded to the Institute of the American West
Originally processed by Barbara [Walker] Lloyd. Finding aid created by Susan Gross and Randy Williams, May 2004; updated by Randy Williams, March 2012
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