Ono surprising fact is that tho colorful, advanturous ora of tha old west existed for such a short Time the catto induotry did not begin to devolep until alter the Civil War, when raitroads began to penerato the Plains states and it became possible to send cattle to Eastern markets, But by 1900 the free range had been fenced in and the great catte boom was over. While working cow hands still exist in the modern West, the cowboy of legend the'American Cavalier strutted the dusty stage of Westem history for only about thirty years.