Texas Cowboy Poetry Week – March 22-23, 2025

History of Texas Cowboy Poetry Week

Back in the Wild Wild West, cowboys had lonely jobs. They had to herd cattle, work on the ranch, etc., often for days or even months at a time, and often without seeing anybody during this period. They’d even have to herd cattle over miles, all by their lonesome. Official data says almost 25 million cattle were driven from Texas to other places like Kansas and Nebraska from the 1860s until the 1910s.

It’s been told that the tradition of telling stories on this journey began then, as the cowboys made their long and arduous journeys. The stories became songs, then poetry, and soon evolved into today’s ‘cowboy poetry’. Then came technology, and with it, a reduced need to make the very journeys that spawned cowboy poetry. And so, the entire genre shifted gears, going from a simple necessity to a way to keep cowboy poetry alive. Another reason people so quickly adopted the memorialization of cowboy poetry — so many movies and shows turned the cowboy into a rough-and-tough lone ranger, a description quite different from the reality of cowboys everywhere.

Cowboy poetry started appearing in many places — diner menus, agricultural magazines, feed store calendars, and other places frequented by cowboys — all through the 20th Century. This genre gained so much popularity that in 1985, a special event — the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering or the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering — was founded. A bunch of people interested in cowboy poetry, including some local poets, decided to create a space where those in this lifestyle could gather together, share their work, and reminisce about their lifestyle. From this first Gathering came many more such events, including the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, amongst others. All these years later, this Gathering, now called National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, plus every other cowboy poetry week, has become a widespread celebration of all things cowboy and the West.