George Augustus Frederick Ruxton was an adventurer and explorer who wrote two books relating to Western Americana: "Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains" (1847) and "Life in the Far West" (1848).

Born a middle child in a large English family, at seventeen Ruxton eschewed formal education in preference for a life of a soldier in Spain, Next, he went on to Ireland and then to Upper Canada where he served the military, contacting Indigenous people and exploring the territory. When he was twenty-three he was experiencing life in Morocco and then South Africa, and at twenty-five he travelled through Mexico and the Rocky Mountains. All the while keeping notes and diaries, Ruxton seems to have written continuously. He produced scholarly articles as well as graphic accounts of his adventures.

Ruxton suddenly died in St. Louis of dysentery at the age of twenty-seven.