About
After returning to civilian life, Mitchell moved back to Nevada, where he got married and raised five children while working on ranches, dreaming of someday owning a spread of his own. Mitchell developed a local reputation for his poems about the life of cowboys and their slowly disappearing lifestyle in the American West. Discovering he was one of many writers keeping the cowboy's oral tradition alive, in 1985 Mitchell helped organize and appeared at the first Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering. The event was a success, attracting over 2,000 people, and it became an annual event. It also sparked Mitchell's interest in performing, and soon he was doing readings throughout the Southwest, which proved to be more profitable than ranch work. Mitchell's big break came when he was invited to appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson; he initially turned down the appearance, having never seen the show and having no idea who Carson was, but he was persuaded to do the show and went over well enough that he came back for three more appearances.
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