On April 11, Glenwood Springs-based author Nancy Bo Flood received the Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for her illustrated children’s book, “Badger Clark: Poetry Wrangler,” a tale about South Dakota’s first poet laureate and an unsung hero of cowboy poetry.
“Badger Clark: Poetry Wrangler” follows the song-filled life of Charles Badger Clark (1883-1957). The book retells the life story of the titular nature-loving bard through his youth in Dakota Territory, misbegotten travels in Cuba and return to the American West where he found his vocation as a poet of prairies, cowpunching and the pleasures of a simple life in the saddle.
Clark is most famous for having penned “A Cowboy’s Prayer,” which is erroneously attributed to Anonymous and read at the opening of many rodeos across the United States. It was through Flood’s love of the rodeo that she first became familiar with Clark’s poetry, often characterized by its smooth rhythms and simple lyricism, which Flood describes as “Shakespeare meets Walt Whitman during a cattle drive.”
Flood is the author of over 20 books oriented towards both young and adult readers, which explore her own experiences as a mother, psychologist, educator in the Navajo Nation and resident of various countries across the world.
Over the course of half a decade, a project that began as an investigation into the history of the cowboy hat eventually morphed into “Badger Clark: Poetry Wrangler,” as Flood dove deep into Clark’s life as an adventurous and idiosyncratic poet.
The book was researched with the assistance of its publisher, South Dakota Historical Society Press. Flood’s research connected her with historians, journalists and cowboy poets. It eventually took her to Badger Hole, Clark’s cabin in Custer State Park. At Badger Hole, Flood chatted with those who knew Clark personally and got to experience the rich atmosphere of his final residence.
In “Badger Clark: Poetry Wrangler,” Flood emphasizes Clark’s sensitivity and love toward animals. Her pages recount the humorous, and apparently true, story of how a family of skunks once saved a young Clark’s life from a gang of disgruntled cattle rustlers, and how, many years later, Clark let a family of skunks live with him in Badger Hole as a kind of thanks. In the mornings, Clark even enjoyed feeding the local deer fresh flapjacks from his window.
Clark was also a staunch pacifist and anti-consumerist. He vehemently opposed segregation. “We still owe the Negro for 250 years of unpaid labor, and we owe the Indian for some three million square miles of land,” Clark once wrote in a letter to the Rapid City Journal.
The book features illustrations by Jeanne Bowman, a freelance illustrator who was raised up and down the Rocky Mountains. Bowman drew on personal experience and extensive research to fill the book’s pages with colorful, historically accurate illustrations that capture the landscape and lifestyle which inspired Clark’s verses.
Published on Sept. 16, 2025, “Badger Clark: Poetry Wrangler” quickly won recognition from judges and writers alike.
On April 11, Flood was invited to a ceremony at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, where her book received a Wrangler Award for Juvenile Fiction.
“Badger Clark: Poetry Wrangler” was also named a finalist for best children’s picture book in the Western Writers of America’s Spur Awards.
“This would be a terrific book to use in a poetry segment in the classroom with a special eye toward getting boys interested in poetry,” wrote fellow author Rosi Hollenbeck in a review.
Flood hopes that her retelling of Clark’s life shifts young readers’ perspective on what being a cowboy is really about. For Flood and Clark alike, cowboys aren’t just tough gunslingers out to get in fights.
“[Cowboys] love songs and singing and they love being out on the open range and [under] the sky at night,” said Flood. She hopes that, through her book, all those who also love these things will be inspired to protect them.
“Badger Clark: Poetry Wrangler” is available for sale online from South Dakota Historical Society Press and in person from Alpenglow Books & Gifts in Glenwood Springs.