After the end of the CA gold rush in 1850, more people came west to prospect and hoping to strike it rich.Gold and silver were discovered in CO & NV. The 1859 discovery of silver in NV was called the Comstock Lode. Gold and silver strikes created boomtowns that grew around mining sites. They were lawless and often violent places. Many booms were followed by busts, turning boomtowns into ghost towns. Copper was found in MT, NM & AZ in the 1870s. By the end of the 19th century, the mining boom becomes a part of American industry, providing raw materials for manufacturers. New western states join the Union: CO in 1876, ND, SD, WA, MT in 1889 and WY and ID in 1890. The nation's railroad network expanded rapidly between 1865-1890, paid for by large govt. subsidies. In 1869 the first U.S. transcontinental railroad was completed when the Union Pacific Company and Central Pacific company railroads met in Promontory, UT. Towns sprang up along the railroads that eventually became cities, such as Denver, CO. In 1883, the railroad companies divided the U.S. into 4 time zones. Congress officialized this in 1918. We also looked at cattle towns on the plains, the Long Drive and the most traveled cattle trails. Many U.S. cowboys were former Confederate soldiers or African Americans who moved west. Hispanic cowboys from the southwest & Mexico were known as vaqueros. By the 1880s, on the northern Plains, ranching begins to to replace the Long Drive. Also in the 1880s, farming comes to the Great Plains. The Homestead Act gave 160 free acres of land to a settler who would settle and live on it for 5 years. This lured 1,000s of new settlers out west. Single women and widows could also acquire land under the Homestead Act. We discussed the African American "Exodusters," life on the farms, farming methods and the OK land rush. In 1890, the U.S. govt. announced that the frontier no longer existed. No one felt these changes so keenly as the Native Americans.