National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week – January 24-29, 2025

History of National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week began in 1985, initially as the Cowboy Poetry Gathering. In 2000, U.S. Senator Richard H. Bryan sponsored a resolution that was introduced to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The committee then passed a simple resolution designating the Cowboy Poetry Gathering as National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week, which recognized the first edition of the event in Reno, Nevada in 1985. Elko, Nevada was recognized by the U.S. Senate as the original home of the Cowboy Poetry Gathering and for their contributions to the gathering, and the history and traditions of the art form.

The inaugural edition of the event saw William Wilson secure funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. It was organized by a team of folklorists and local cowboy poets of which Hal Cannon and Waddie Mitchell were included. The event provided a place for Western ranchers and cowboys to gather to share poems about ranch life. It became clear from the beginning that these folks had found an artistic community known only to a few.

Today, National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week is a six-day event filled with poetry, music, dancing, workshops, exhibits, etc., all rooted in the tradition of the rural West. The Gathering embraces its role as the pilgrimage point for thousands of ranch folk and lovers of Western culture to come and experience art that grows from a connection to the “rhythms of earth and sky.”