Frank Mayer

Born in 1850 and dying in 1954, Frank H. Mayer lived an unusually long life that stretched from the Civil War era into the 1950s. Sources describe him as a buffalo hunter and Colorado rancher, and his name is most closely linked with The Buffalo Harvest, a memoir based on his experiences on the Plains.

Mayer's life has often been presented in classic Wild West terms: he is described as having served as a drummer boy in the Civil War, later fought in western campaigns, and at one point served as a U.S. marshal in Colorado. His memoir was shaped late in life and published with Charles B. Roth, helping preserve his version of a disappearing frontier.

At the same time, at least one archival source notes that Mayer was known for telling tall tales, and that an interviewer could not vouch for every story in his oral history. That mix of firsthand history and frontier legend is part of what makes his work interesting: it offers a lively, memorable window into how the West was remembered by someone who claimed to have lived it.