Cooter McGee is an American prospector in the late 19th century. In Martian Dreams, McGee was transported to Mars in the accidental launch of Percival Lowell's space bullet at its exhibition at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Stranded on the red planet, the earthlings soon discovered the necessity of keeping themselves oxygenated in the thin atmosphere, and demand for the oxygen-bearing mineral, oxium, became quite high after its discovery.