Jake Copass (April 18, 1920 – June 8, 2006) was a cowboy poet who lived in the Santa Ynez Valley. [1] [2] He had been working as a wrangler at the Alisal Guest Ranch in Solvang, California since 1946.
A poet is a person who creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be a writer of poetry, or may perform their art to an audience.
The Santa Ynez Valley is located in Santa Barbara County, California, between the Santa Ynez Mountains to the south and the San Rafael Mountains to the north. The Santa Ynez River flows through the valley from east to west. The Santa Ynez Valley is separated from the Los Alamos Valley, to the northwest, by the Purisima Hills, and from the Santa Maria Valley by the Solomon Hills. The Santa Rita Hills separate the Santa Ynez Valley from the Santa Rita and Lompoc Valleys to the west.
Solvang is a city in Santa Barbara County, California. It is located in the Santa Ynez Valley. The population was 5,245 at the 2010 census, down from 5,332 at the 2000 census. Solvang was incorporated as a city on May 1, 1985.
A native of Texas, he was shocked when he saw the valley. "Green grass in winter?" he says. "I had never seen that before. So I decided to stay. This was real cowboy country back then." Copass bought and sold cattle up and down the coast and did occasional movie work over the decades.
Each couple of years, his family would visit him up at his ranch. He always kept in touch with the people he knew.
He saw an opportunity to reinforce children's value systems by talking about honesty and the cowboy way, and helping them to understand the ethics cowboys live by. Jake recently explained, "When you're young, you never feel like you have anything to offer anyone. Then you find out your own experiences are interesting to others."
A story-telling, poetry-reading cowboy treasure, Jake Copass has performed at cowboy poetry gatherings all over the West. He has a book of poetry, It Don't Hurt to Laugh, published by Olive Press, and a memoir entitled, I'll Be Satisfied.
Cowboy poetry is a form of poetry that grew from a tradition of cowboys telling stories.
Copass died on June 8, 2006, following a brief illness from leukemia. His funeral was held a week later at the Alisal Guest Ranch ().
Leukemia, also spelled leukaemia, is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called blasts or leukemia cells. Symptoms may include bleeding and bruising problems, feeling tired, fever, and an increased risk of infections. These symptoms occur due to a lack of normal blood cells. Diagnosis is typically made by blood tests or bone marrow biopsy.
Santa Barbara County, California, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is a county located in the southern region of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 423,895. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria.
Santa Ynez is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, California.
Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician and rodeo performer who gained fame as a singing cowboy in a crooning style on radio, in films, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was the owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997.
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Michael Martin Murphey is an American singer-songwriter best known for writing and performing Western music, country music and popular music. A multiple Grammy nominee, Murphey has six gold albums, including Cowboy Songs, the first album of cowboy music to achieve gold status since Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs by Marty Robbins in 1959. He has recorded the hit singles "Wildfire", "Carolina in the Pines", "What's Forever For", "A Long Line of Love", "What She Wants", "Don't Count the Rainy Days", and "Maybe This Time". Murphey is also the author of New Mexico's state ballad, "The Land of Enchantment". Murphey has become a prominent musical voice for the Western horseman, rancher, and cowboy.
William Surrey Hart was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered as a foremost western star of the silent era who "imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity." During the late 1910s and early 1920s, he was one of the most consistently popular movie stars, frequently ranking high among male actors in popularity contests held by movie fan magazines.
Los Olivos is a census-designated place in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, California. The ZIP Code is 93441, and the community is inside area code 805. The population was 1,132 at the 2010 census.
Bruce Kiskaddon (1878–1950) has been called the quintessential cowboy poet of the 20th century and is widely considered to be the cowboy poet laureate of America. His poems were widely published in calendars and books throughout his lifetime. In the mid-1980s, the birth of the cowboy poetry renaissance renewed interest in his work.
Wallace D. "Wally" McRae is a rancher, an American cowboy, a cowboy poet and philosopher. He runs the 30,000-acre (120 km2) Rocker Six Cattle Co. ranch on Rosebud Creek south of Rosebud, Montana.
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Rancho Nojoqui was a 13,284-acre (53.76 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Barbara County, California given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Raimundo Carrillo. The grant was located in the Santa Ynez Valley and foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains, just south of present-day Solvang.
Vess Quinlan is an American Cowboy Poet, who is widely considered to be one of the most respected poets of his genre. Quinlan's work has been published in many books and magazines, as well as on various online poetry databases. His writing is based on his real life experiences as a rancher, and really gives his poetry a lifelike feel.
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Georgie Connell Sicking was a rancher and active participant in cowboy poetry gatherings throughout the American West. A Wyoming resident in her later years, Sicking was inducted in 1989 into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. Described as "a cowboy who just happens to be a woman", Sicking was known for her old-fashioned feminine values and self-determination.
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Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival is an annual event held at the William S. Hart Park in Old Town Newhall, California. Each year, over 10,000 visitors from all around the world attend lectures and performances on multiple stages by famous poets, authors, instructors, musical acts, and dancers, in fields including Western, Bluegrass, Americana and Spoken Word to folk, Native American and Mexican American traditions. Guests participate in cowboy and cowgirl living history through activities such as life around a chuck wagon, roping, bull riding, crafts, games, and trying an assortment of dishes including BBQ and peach cobbler. Guests can also attend a demonstration of plains Tipi living, tours of the historic Heritage Junction town and train engine, appearances by lasso expert Dave Thornbury and gunslinger Joey Rocketshoes Dillon, the Buffalo Soldiers camp, and a Western and Civil War reenactment.
The Chumash Casino Resort is owned and operated by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians. Chumash is located near Santa Ynez Airport, in the Santa Ynez Indian Reservation, about 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Solvang, California.
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