sometimes cursing as well. It was monotonous and boring work, with food to match: bacon, beans, bread, coffee, dried fruit, and potatoes. On average, cowboys earned $30 to $40 per month, because of the heavy physical and emotional toll, it was unusual for a cowboy to spend more than seven years on the range. As open range ranching and the long drives gave way to fenced-in ranches in the 1880s, by the 1890s the glory days of the cowboy came to an end, and the myths about the "free-living" cowboy began to emerge. Miners In 1849, James W. Marshall was building a sawmill on the riverside of the American River when he noticed metal flakes under the waterwheel. He recognized the flakes to be gold. However, the sawmill he was building was not his, meaning that when he finished building the sawmill, his client John Sutter would also notice. So word quickly spread of there potentially being gold in the American River. So everyone packed the essentials, hopped on their wagons, and headed to California in hopes of striking it rich. This was the start of the California Gold Rush. The California Gold Rush was both good and bad to America at the time. It simultaneously increased the population of California to almost 100,000 people, which helped with the modernization of California. But also brought down the population of other states. Their employment rate took a hit as well, as people were quitting their jobs so they could embark on their journeys. The California Gold Rush finally came to an end in 1855. The extraction of gold from the river was done by dust panning; with most dust panning normally done by prospectors. Dust panning involves using a pan into the water to collect sediment from the steambed, then pours the water out leaving all the gold and other sediments behind. Though this happened before the Wild West era, it was one of the biggest reasons why the Wild West was a thing in the first place. Even after the California Gold Rush, mining was still a common occupation. Most mountainside towns likely had a mineshaft. Most miners were poor, as mining was a very labor-intensive job. Miners would use pickaxes in order to mine into the mountains. They mined gold, zinc, copper, and other metals. These metals were sold to shopkeepers and rich people for currency. Miners were paid