"California Joe, the Mysterious Plainsman" is a book first published in 1900 written by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham who was a Colonel in the Confederate Army, a professional military officer throughout the 1860s, and a prolific author of books on the American West. It is a dime novel, a very short novel, about the life of a young man who acts as if he is immortal.
At first, many characters in the book think that Joe is a ghost or a "spook" because of his all black clothes and solid white horse. Soon, however, Joe introduces himself to a group of people who are laying train tracks across the prairie.
This book is a wonderful light novel and is also important for what it reveal about American cultural history at the time of its publication.
