Stories Matter

  This time of year, the dead of winter, was chosen for the first Gathering in 1985 because it’s a time when ranch folks can get away–weather permitting-- after shipping cattle in the fall and before branding in the spring. 

      In 1986, I attended the second Cowboy Poetry Gathering.  I was there with my mom and dad and my sister.  I want to tell you what I learned from that experience about why sharing our stories—-sharing your stories–matters.

      I learned how telling our stories can preserve the values of a particular culture by passing on teaching stories.  Maybe a simple thing like, if you open a gate, close it behind you;  how stories can illustrate the character traits that are important to the group--like gumption or keeping your word, or what it takes to get through a tough situation;  and connection--how sharing  stories that matter creates a bond between the teller of the story and the listener.   

     Why was I there? Here’s my story.  In early January of 1986 my mother called me from Fountain Hills AZ, where they had been snowbirds since retirement.   She said, “There’s this event at the Convention Center in Elko called the Cowboy Poetry Gathering.   Jack Walther is one of the poets.  Your dad and I were thinking that we could meet you girls in Elko.”  She meant my sister who lived in the Bay Area. I lived in Ukiah, California with my husband and two children, where I taught composition and literature at a small rural community college.   She said, “ We could stay at the Stockmen’s Hotel.  I think your dad would enjoy it.”

      My father had a venerable history in ranching in Elko County–a  degree in range management, a long career as a ranch manager, an even longer one as a ranch broker and range consultant.  Jack Walther was a family friend going back to the late 1940s when dad was managing the 71 Ranch in Starr Valley, one of the most beautiful cattle ranches in Nevada.  Jack was a young cowhand from a nearby pioneer family.   Dad and Jack’s  relationship was life long.  Since retirement, they had been going to Bishop, California for Mule Days.  Dad would buy mules and Jack would train them. As a matter of fact,  one of those mules became famous.  But that’s another story.

      So, there I was in Elko, January 1986, near the beginning of an event that has lasted for forty years and shows few signs of slowing down.  I was there because of Dad's ranching experience, our much-loved  Jack Walther reincarnated as a cowboy poet,  memories growing up on ranches in Elko County.  Most importantly, I was there because  Mom wanted  us to

get together, maybe one last time. Dad was terminally ill.  He died the following August of prostate cancer.

   That last weekend of January 1986 was a  rollicking, rhythmic good time!      It was like going to the Elko County Fair or the Silver State Stampede–cowboys everywhere– (and “cowboys,” by the way, is a noun that supersedes gender and ethnicity.)   Except there was no bull-riding or barrel-racing.  Just cowboys reciting poetry at the drop of a cowboy hat, to  receptive listeners and to each other.  “Do you know the one about…” was heard all over town.  Their repertoire of memorized poems was amazing. 

      For outsiders, “ cowboy” and “poet” is  an oxymoron.  Certainly a novelty.     But a good number of the folks who came during those early years knew differently.  In 1986,  there were sixty cowboy poets and about a thousand folks who came to listen. Many, maybe even most of those who showed up in the dead of that winter, were familiar with this cherished oral tradition–knowing poems by heart.   And they understood the lingo of ranch life, whether in the Great Basin, on the Great Plains, or the Texas Panhandle. 

  As folklorist Mike Korn said, “Those who aren’t connected with cattle or ranching couldn’t be expected to understand that the poems are stories that reflect the values, ideas, hazards, problems, jokes, lessons and morals, expressed time after time, to teach, fortify, and underline the values of a way of life.”   It is sharing that keeps our stories alive.

     Some of the most memorable  poetry comes from the feeling that the cowboy poet’s way of life is misunderstood, even threatened.    Elko County cowboy poet Rod Mc Query said, “My poetry tries to tell the truth about my culture and my profession.  The only thing ranch families can be sure of is that they are misunderstood.”

     In closing, I would like to share a poem by the great  cowboy poet, Wallace MacRea, third generation rancher from Miles City Montana.  In “Things of Intrinsic Worth” he speaks to us, the listeners,  about how coal  mining  impacted the land, a way of life, and  the loss of the values that hold a community together.