George Augustus Frederick Ruxton (24 July 1821 – 29 August 1848) was born in Oxfordshire, England.  He was a soldier, explorer and writer.

“I was a vagabond in all my propensities. Everything quiet or commonplace I detested and my spirit chafed within me to see the world and participate in scenes of novelty and danger.”

“I must confess that the very happiest moments of my life have been spent in the wilderness of the Far West; and I never recall, but with pleasure, the remembrance of my solitary camp in the Bayou Salade [Salt valley of South Park, Colorado], with no friend near me more faithful than my rifle, and no companions more sociable than my good horse and mules, or the attendant cayute which nightly serenaded us. With a plentiful supply of dry pine-logs on the fire, and its cheerful blaze streaming far up into the sky, illuminating the valley far and near, and, pipe in mouth, watch the blue smoke as it curled upwards, building castles in the vapoury wreaths, and, in the fantastic shapes it assumed, peopling the solitude with figures of those far away… I believe not one instance could be adduced of even the most polished and civilised of men, who had once tasted the sweets of its attendant liberty, and freedom from every worldly care, not regretting the moment when he exchanged it fro the monotonous life of the settlements, nor sighing and sighing again once more to partake of its pleasures and allurements.”

Ruxton was a prolific writer whose works include:

• Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains
• Life in the Far West
• In the old West
• Mountain men: George Frederick Ruxton’s first hand account of fur trappers and Indians in the Rockies
• Wild Life in the Rocky Mountains
• Ruxton of the Rockies