author
Frank Benton
1853–1921
A cattleman turned storyteller, this Western voice wrote with the dry humor and firsthand detail of someone who had lived the life he described. His best-known book captures the rough, funny, practical world of cowboys moving livestock by rail.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1853 and active in the cattle industry of the American West, Frank Benton became known as a prominent rancher in Colorado. Historical accounts of the Benton ranching business describe him as an important figure in western cattle operations, and later sources about his work note that he helped found the National Western Stock Show.
He is best remembered in print for Cowboy Life on the Sidetrack (1903), a lively, humorous account of ranch hands, stock shipments, and the day-to-day culture of cowboys. Library and public-domain records also show other works under his name, but this book is the one most closely associated with him today.
Benton died in 1921. What still makes his writing stand out is its mix of insider knowledge and plainspoken wit: instead of polishing the West into legend, he wrote about the people who actually did the hard work.