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Historical Background

Epilogue—A Bygone Age

The golden age of the West is gone. But it was an age so rich in achievement, romance, courage, and adventure that it will always have a prime place in our history and folklore. In the process of taming and settling the West the prospector, cowhand, and sodbuster changed the face of the wild land. They brought civilization, established towns, forced the nomadic Indians onto reservations, drove the game into the hills, and wrested whatever they could from the land—be it gold, silver, cattle, or wheat.

As time passed and men adapted to new conditions and tried to better their lot, the West changed. Individual effort yielded to corporate endeavor. In the early days one man panned a stream for gold or silver. He ignored the other metals and felt that their retrieval was not worth the effort. By the turn of the 20th century mining was in the hands of large corporations, whose stock was traded on Wall Street. These industrial giants were not interested only in gold or silver; they mined any metal that promised a profit. The electrical revolution created a demand for copper, and the railroads made it possible to transport low-grade ores at a reasonable cost. The mining corporations turned to copper and other minerals, which brought them far more return than gold or silver ever had to the lone prospector. The miner became a day laborer, he entered some other occupation, or he wandered to the far corners of the earth.

After the range was fenced, ranchers could experiment with improved breeds of cattle. Most of them replaced Longhorns with Herefords and other breeds. The cowhand, who was used to living in a line camp dugout a hundred miles from nowhere and who trailed many a herd out of Texas, got married, took a homestead, kept milk cows, and raised vegetables along with a few "whitefaces."

The subsistence farm of the Plains gave way to large, highly mechanized, one-crop establishments that produced for the world market. The farmer became a businessman, who in order to survive had to turn from the pioneer independence of his forebears to cooperatives for economic and political protection. As time passed, climatic factors, economic conditions, new machinery and equipment, and trends in government brought a new face to the West.

Accustomed to the comforts and conveniences of the 20th century, we today can only dimly appreciate the hardships encountered and overcome by the pioneer prospector cowhand, and sodbuster—who had far more sinew and spirit than have the romanticized versions we see in television and movies. These men went west with high hopes and dreams. They worked and they fought. They looked upon their children and hoped for something better for them. Some sought adventure and found it; some tried to start over again and busted again; some hoped to get wealthy, but few did. But they fulfilled their destiny. They kept faith with their dreams. They transformed the West from a frontier into a vital part of the United States and helped mold the character of the Nation.