Cowboy Life On The Sidetrack

A true representative book of the west around the turn of the century, the author was a cowpuncher with a deep ranching heritage. Frank Benton was a cowboy who wrote of his experiences on the Wild West plains as a cowboy in his 1903 book "Cowboy Life on the Sidetrack." In introducing his book, Benton states: "I have been a cowboy and worked with the cowboys for thirty-two years, and have written the things set down here just as they came from the cowboys' lips on a stock train as we were waiting on sidetracks. The names of the cowboys used are the actual nicknames of cowpunchers whom I worked with on Wyoming ranges twenty years ago, and will be recognized by lots of old-timers." Contents: THE START. CHUCKWAGON'S DREAM. GRAZING THE SHEEP. LETTERS FROM HOME BROUGHT BY IMMIGRANTS. EATUMUP JAKE'S LIFE STORY. THE SCHOOLMARM'S SADDLE HORSE. SELLING CATTLE ON THE RANGE. TRUE SNAKE STORIES. CHUCKWAGON'S DEATH. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE SHEEPMEN. OUR ARRIVAL IN CHEYENNE. THE POST-HOLE DIGGER'S GHOST. GRAFTING. THE FILE. THE CATTLE STAMPEDE. CATCHING A MAVERICK. STEALING CRAZY HEAD'S WAR PONIES. THE CATTLE QUEEN'S GHOST. PACKSADDLE JACK'S DEATH. A COWBOY ENOCH ARDEN. GRAND ISLAND "SARER." ARRIVAL AT THE TRANSFER TRACK OF SOUTH OMAHA. THE FINAL ROUNDUP.