By Carol Powell
(Edited and enhanced by Kathy Krause)
In Santa Fe, NM, there is a place called Siringo Road. It was named for Charles A. "Charlie" Siringo who had a ranch in the area in the early 1900s. Charlie was born in Texas in 1855 and by age 15 was working on surrounding ranches as a cowboy, eventually becoming a trail driver and working the Chisolm Trail. In 1884, he quit the cowboy life, settled down and got married, becoming a merchant in Caldwell, Kansas. It was there he began writing his first book, "A Texas Cowboy; or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony." A year later, it was published to much popular acclaim – one of the first real looks at the cowboy life by someone who actually lived it.
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