GEORGE AND MAGGIE AND THE RED LIGHT SALOON

About the Book

This is the true story of George and Maggie Wood, a young couple who in 1880, in a fledgling cowtown that sprang up from the dust of the old Chisholm Trail, built the "largest dance house in Kansas". [read that-cat house.]

In a formidable two-month trek through the dusty plains of Texas and the "Indian Nations," brash young cowboys drove the longhorns to the railhead at the Kansas state line. There they emerged at Caldwell, Kansas; primed for celebration in that wide-open cowtown fondly known to them as "The Queen of the Border." Wild, wooly and dangerous, in its futile effort to hold a lid on the cowboys' rampant and often times violent revelry, the town ran through 15 marshals in the six year period of the cattle drives between 1879 and 1885. Continuously besieged by murder and depravation, the town was locked in a love-hate alliance with the many dens that catered to the roughshod instincts of the hell-raising cowboys.

Festering at the heart of this perpetual bedlam was the number-one attraction of the Border Queen; George and Maggie's Red Light Saloon, the wellspring of murder and violence; and the epitome of debauchery and just plain nasty wickedness.

About the Author

A native of the old cowtown, Caldwell, Kansas, amateur historian and researcher Rod Cook has long been fascinated by the wild and wooly history of his hometown, in particular the uproarious years of the cattle drives of the 1870?s and 1880?s. Until now, his writing has been limited to historical essays and newspaper articles of local and regional interest. A design engineer by profession, his recent intensified interest has led him to the unanticipated role of novice writer. George and Maggie and the Red Light Saloon is his first attempt at bringing his unique insight to a universal audience.