Life in the Far west

George Frederick Ruxton was an explorer and adventurer extraordinaire. Born in England in 1820, he followed in his family’s footsteps and entered the military at the age of thirteen. He quickly became a decorated soldier, serving in Spain, where he fought for Queen Isabella II in the Carlist civil war and was made a Spanish knight at seventeen, as well as in Ireland and Canada. But the rigidity of military life was not for him. In 1843 Ruxton followed his wanderlust; he sold his commission and roamed freely for a season through the remote woods of southern Canada and northern New York, hunting and living off the land.