Cowboy Poetry gathering celebrates the Western frontier

Scott Sonner

Saturday, Jan. 29, 2000 | 9:41 a.m.

ELKO, Nev. - They come from all over to learn how to make horsehair rope, sell their sheep and cattle on the Internet and listen to lectures about environmental ranching.

But mostly they come to warm their souls with poems and songs about one of the most romanticized, endangered species on the Western frontier - the American cowboy.

"Here's to the cow-punchers folks call a dying breed," said Ross Knox, who worked on northern Nevada ranches as a boy and now lives in Arizona, running pack mules to the floor of the Grand Canyon.

It's the 16th Cowboy Poetry gathering, a week-long celebration of the open range, wild mustangs, campfires, full moons, coyotes and a "time when a hand shake was still a contract."

More than 150 similar events have popped up across the country since the first gathering was held in Elko in 1985, but local organizers at the Western Folklife Center in Elko insist those really don't compare.

"This is the mother of all poetry gatherings," said Mike Fleming, a guitarist in the New West trio, which performed before about 3,000 at the Elko Convention Center Thursday night.

About 10,000 people are expected to visit the series of readings, workshops, forums and performances by the time the event wraps up on Sunday. A media kit handed out to visiting reporters helps explain why they choose to gather amongst the snow-covered mountains in the dead of winter instead of scheduling the event when the thermometer doesn't dip as close to zero.

"This is a time of year when cowboys and ranchers traditionally have a bit of a lull on the ranch and range and can take time away from their normal seven-day work week to attend a get-together."

Elko was selected because it's a "real cowboy town" in the middle of Nevada ranching country, 325 miles from Reno and 250 miles from Salt Lake City.

And so they come from Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and points beyond. Even California.

"I have to tell you, being from California, we are not really cowboys," Fleming confessed. "We are cow dudes - totally tubular cow dudes."

Louise K. Dean and Guy McLean came all the way from Australia to recite the poetry that won them the Quantas-Waltzing Matilda Australian Bush Poetry Championships.

Between readings, participants wander through Western art exhibits or attend demonstrations on blacksmithing or wild-horse gentling, or get advice on setting up easements for wildlife or planning their estate.

Cowboy hats abound as do hand-tooled leather boots, bandanas and a wide variety of colorful Western fashions.

"Here we are dressed up as a combination of Porter Waggoner and Dennis Rodman," said Wallace McRae, a cowboy poet from Forsyth, Mont., who won a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Gary McMahon, a native of Greeley, Colo., said he was just glad to be rubbing shoulders with so many great poets at such a big event.

"I usually do stockmen's shows, where the sound man is also the auctioneer," McMahon said. "The songs and poems you write are like your kids: you love them all, but usually they just stay around home and do nothing."

Georgie Sicking, a member of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, grew up on a ranch outside Kingman, Ariz., and has received the Nevada Cattleman's Award for 100,000 miles on horseback.

She recited the poem "Laura," a reminder of the days when it was "unladylike" for a girl to be a cowboy.

"Laura was a cowboy," she said. "By profession, not by gender, she was known."

Appearing at a performance entitled "Back in the 20th Century," Sicking recalled her youthful days on the range chasing down wild mustangs.

"You can't do it in the 21st century, it's illegal. This was before the laws were passed," she said.

Knox recited the "Final Ride of Freeman McBride," the tale of a trail guide with a penchant for scotch who "didn't play well with others."

"The names have been changed - not to protect anybody, it's just nobody could remember the real names," Knox said.