Homesteaders and settlers from Canada, Europe, Asia, and other parts of the United States worked hard to make a living from this tough land. Many came to the Eastern Sierra in the 1870s and 1880s seeking riches from mining towns such as Bodie, then realized they could make a better living provisioning miners. Ranch owners became entrepreneurs, and Louis W. De Chambeau raised pigs, herded sheep for slaughter and sale or barter, grew hay to feed cattle, and leased his hay baler to other families. Having grown up in Canada, he was also a skilled woodworker who made skis in winter for the local community. Though remote, his ranch and others like it were essential to the Eastern Sierra mining boom of the late nineteenth century because the produce and meat they supplied made mining possible.