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Show F. Allan Brewer Vernal, Utah born: 20 April, 1910 Allan Brewer spent his childhood on Balanced Rock Ranch in eastern Utah's Book Cliffs, about 100 miles southeast of his present home in Vernal. Like his father, he spent many years running a large herd of cattle in that remote and inaccessible part of the state. Even after his retirement from the ranching business, he couldn't stay away from a life on the range and so he spent a number of summers herding cattle for the Diamond Mountain Cattle Company. Although Allan had always appreciated both hearing and telling humorous stories and anecdotes about ranch life, he didn't become involved in writing about the ranching experience until after his retirement in 1975. Perhaps the impetus to write his own poetry came from a project his sister Frances had undertaken at about that same time. Using a number of poems written by their father, Frank A. Brewer, along with a number of her own pieces, she published a booklet called Ballads of the Book Cliffs. Many of her poems were based upon the stories and funny anecdotes that Allan had jotted down for years and always referred to as "sheep dip." Allan soon began writing his own cowboy verse, telling about many of his experiences while working as a cowboy. Both his and Frances' poems often refer to their childhood when their favorite pastime, "chasin' horses," was "just as natural as a coyote chasin' a rabbit!" For Allan, writing serves as a way to reminisce about his personal past and the ranch community of which he has always been a part. He doesn't necessarily memorize his 50 Cowboy Poetry From Utah |