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Frank Benton

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Frank Benton

1853–1921

A Wyoming cattleman, longtime cowboy, and lively observer of Western life, he turned stories from stock trains and ranch work into humor-filled writing. His best-known book, Cowboy Life on the Sidetrack, offers a colorful firsthand glimpse of cowboys, cattle shipping, and the rough comedy of life on the range.

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Cowboy life on the sidetrack : being an extremely humorous and sarcastic story of the trials and tribulations endured by a party of stockmen making a shipment from the west to the east.

Cowboy life on the sidetrack : being an extremely humorous and sarcastic story of the trials and tribulations endured by a party of stockmen making a shipment from the west to the east.

by Frank Benton

About the author

Frank Benton (1853–1921) was a prominent cattle rancher on Colorado’s Western Slope and one of the founders of the National Western Stock Show. He was also a columnist and writer based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with decades of experience working alongside cowboys and ranch hands.

His 1903 book, Cowboy Life on the Sidetrack, draws on stories and nicknames gathered during years on Wyoming ranges and on cattle trains traveling east. Written in a humorous, sarcastic style, the book follows stockmen dealing with delayed trains, cattle shipments, sheepmen, railroad agents, and the everyday mishaps of Western life.