Cowboys are often depicted as something that they definitely were not. Popular images of cowboys include the "natural man", someone tough and free to roam as they please. The real experience of the cowboys in the West was much less glamorous than people in the 19th century thought. Real cowboys were laborers that were paid low wages for their hard work. Cowboys were the lowest of society (other than Chinese migrants) in the West.
     Other historical realities of life in the West are distorted because of the false character of the cowboy. Many people believed that the west had no support from the federal government because of the independent and free "cowboy" image that people had, when in fact the federal government helped the western settlers a lot. One example of the way that the federal government helped the settlers was the Homestead act. Another way the western image was distorted was that people believed that the West had no other peoples and the cowboys ruled the West when there were actually many other cultures and peoples that had already settled in the West.
     There were many factors that contributed to the idealization of the American cowboy. One factor was that the west was shrouded in mystery and people were left to their own imaginations to picture the West's people and landscapes. It was easy for people to believe all settlers were successful and independent. Another factor that contributed to the American cowboy idealization were paintings of the West and literature about cowboys that convinced people even further that cowboys were successful "natural men" that could take care of themselves.
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