The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states A U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of commonwealth rather than state. State citizenship is of the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language. Because the U.S. expanded westward Manifest Destiny was the 19th century belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. It was used by Democrats in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico; the concept was denounced by Whigs, and fell into disuse after the mid 1850s after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time. Prior to about 1800, the crest of the Appalachian Mountains Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama was seen as the western frontier. Since then, the frontier moved further west and the Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. About 2,320 miles long, the river originates at Lake Itasca, Minnesota and flows slowly southwards in sweeping meanders, terminating 95 river miles below New Orleans, Louisiana where it begins to flow to the Gulf of Mexico. Along with its major tributary, the Missouri River, the was referenced as the easternmost possible boundary of the West.
In the 21st century The 21st century is the current century of the Christian Era or Common Era in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 2001 and will end on December 31, 2100, the states which include the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The North American Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles (4,830 km) from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. The range's highest peak is Mount Elbert located in Colorado at 14,440 feet (4,401 and the Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds of North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American lowpoint at Badwater Basin to—less than 100 miles away—the contiguous United States highpoint at the Mount Whitney summit. The watershed spans several to the West Coast The West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon and Washington.[citation needed] The United States Census Bureau groups the five states of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii together as the Pacific region are generally considered to comprise the American West.
Besides being a purely geographical designation, "The West" also has anthropological connotations. While this region has its own internal diversity, there is arguably an overall shared history, culture (music, cuisine), mind set or world view and closely interrelated dialects of English. However, certain subregions and states, such as Utah Utah is one of the most religiously homogeneous states in the Union. Between 41% and 60% of Utahns are reported to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , which greatly influences Utah culture and daily life and Southern California Southern California is the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Though there is no official definition for the northern boundary of Southern California, most definitions in use include all the land south of the Tehachapi Mountains, located about 70 miles (113 km) north of Los Angeles. Southern California can be divided into Greater Los, have certain things that distinguish them from the other parts of the West.
The "West" had played an important part in American history The first residents of what is now the United States emigrated from Asia over 15,000 years ago by crossing Beringia into Alaska. Archaeological evidence of these peoples, the ancestors of the Native Americans dates to 14,000 years ago; the Old West The American Old West comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the period of the later half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century. After the eighteenth century and the push beyond the Appalachian Mountains, the term is embedded in America's folklore.
The Gateway Arch The Gateway Arch, also known as the Gateway to the West, is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri. Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States, it has become the city's iconic image. It was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947 in St. Louis St. Louis (pronounced /seɪnt ˈluːɪs/ or /sænt ˈluː.iː/; French: Saint-Louis or St-Louis, [sɛ̃ lwi] ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. The city itself has an estimated population of 354,361 and is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,879,934, the largest urban area in Missouri and 16th-largest, also known as the "Gateway to the West", commemorates the westward expansion of the United States.In its most extensive definition, the western U.S. is the largest region, covering more than half the land area of the United States. It is also the most geographically diverse, incorporating geographic regions such as the Pacific Coast The West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon and Washington.[citation needed] The United States Census Bureau groups the five states of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii together as the Pacific region, the temperate rainforests Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm . The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests of the Northwest The Pacific Northwest is a region in western North America, bound by the Pacific Ocean to the west. Always included are the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Southeast Alaska, Idaho, western Montana and northern California are often included, the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The North American Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles (4,830 km) from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. The range's highest peak is Mount Elbert located in Colorado at 14,440 feet (4,401, the Great Plains The Great Plains are the broad expanse of prairie, steppe and grassland which lie west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming, and the Canadian, most of the tall-grass prairie Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type. Temperate grassland regions include the Pampas of Argentina, and the steppes of Eurasia eastward to Western Wisconsin, Illinois United States migrant settlers began arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s; Illinois achieved statehood in 1818. The future metropolis of Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan. Railroads and John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow made central, the western Ozark Plateau The Ozarks are a physiographic, geologic, and cultural highland region of the central United States. It covers much of the south half of Missouri and an extensive portion of northwest and North central Arkansas. The region also extends westward into northeast Oklahoma and extreme southeast Kansas, the western portions of the southern forests, the Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, sometimes referred to as the Gulf South, South Coast, or 3rd Coast, comprises the coasts of American states that are on the Gulf of Mexico. These states are Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida and are known as the Gulf States. All Gulf States are located in the Southern region of the United, and all of the desert areas located in the United States (the Mojave The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States. Named after the Mohave tribe of Native Americans, it is a typical Basin and Range topography, Sonoran The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S. states of Arizona and California and the northwest Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It is one of the largest and hottest deserts in North America, with an area of 311,000 square, Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds of North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American lowpoint at Badwater Basin to—less than 100 miles away—the contiguous United States highpoint at the Mount Whitney summit. The watershed spans several, and Chihuahua The Chihuahuan Desert is a desert that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border in the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau, bordered on the west by the extensive Sierra Madre Occidental range, and overlaying northern portions of the east range, the Sierra Madre Oriental. On the U.S. side it occupies the valleys and basins of central and deserts).
The states from the Rockies westward have something of a dual nature of semiarid steppes A steppe in physical geography refers to a biome region characterised by grassland plain without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. The prairie (especially the shortgrass and mixed prairie) is an example of a steppe, though it is not usually called such. It may be semi-desert, or covered with grass or shrubs or both, depending on the and arid deserts in the lowlands and plateaus, and mountains and coniferous forests The temperate coniferous forest includes areas such as the Valdivian temperate rain forests of southwestern South America, the rain forests of New Zealand and Tasmania, northwest Europe , southern Japan, and the eastern Black Sea-Caspian Sea region of Turkey and Georgia to northern Iran in the uplands and coastal regions.
The region encompasses some of the Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles (2,147,000 km2) of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs ($3,750,000), for a total cost of 15 million dollars for the Louisiana territory, most of the land ceded by Britain Great Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 61.8 million people in mid-2009, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands and islets. The island of in 1818, some of the land acquired when the Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas was an independent state in North America, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from 1836 to 1846 joined the U.S., all of the land ceded by Britain in 1846, all of the land ceded by Mexico In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain which would eventually become Mexico in 1848, and all of the Gadsden Purchase The Gadsden Purchase is a 29,670-square-mile (76,800 km2) region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the United States in a treaty signed by President Franklin Pierce on June 24, 1853, and ratified by the U.S. Senate on April 25, 1854. The purchase was the last major territorial acquisition in the.
Arizona Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912 - the 50th anniversary of Arizona's recognition as a territory of the United States. Arizona is noted for its desert climate, exceptionally hot summers, and mild winters, however it also features pine forests and mountain and New Mexico The state's total area is 121,412 square miles . The eastern border of New Mexico lies along 103° W longitude with the state of Oklahoma, and three miles (5 km) west of 103.5° W longitude with Texas. On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora make up the western third, with are always considered to be in the Southwest The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. Narrowly defined, the "core" Southwest might include only Arizona and New Mexico, with parts of while portions of California California's geography ranges from the Pacific coast to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east, to Mojave desert areas in the southeast and the Redwood–Douglas fir forests of the northwest. The center of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. California is the most, Colorado Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because it was admitted to the Union as the 38th state in 1876, the centennial year of the United States Declaration of Independence. Colorado is bordered on the north by Wyoming and Nebraska, on the east by Nebraska and Kansas, on the south by Oklahoma and New Mexico, and on the west by Utah, Nevada Nevada is the seventh-largest state in area, and geographically covers the Mojave Desert in the south to the Great Basin in the north. It is the most arid state in the Union. Approximately 86% of the state's land is owned by the U.S federal government under various jurisdictions both civilian and military. As of 2008, there were about 2.6 million, Oklahoma A major producer of natural gas, oil and agriculture, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. It has one of the fastest growing economies in the nation, ranking among the top states in per capita income growth and gross domestic product growth. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahoma's, Texas Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States, while San Antonio is the second largest in the state and seventh largest in the United States. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and sixth largest United States metropolitan areas, respectively. Other major cities include El Paso and Austin—the, and Utah Utah is one of the most religiously homogeneous states in the Union. Between 41% and 60% of Utahns are reported to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , which greatly influences Utah culture and daily life are sometimes considered part of the Southwest The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. Narrowly defined, the "core" Southwest might include only Arizona and New Mexico, with parts of, while all or part of Idaho Idaho is a mostly mountainous state, with an area larger than all of New England. It is landlocked, surrounded by the states of Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and the Canadian Province of British Columbia. However, the network of dams and locks on the Columbia River and Snake River make the city of Lewiston the farthest inland, Montana Montana has several nicknames, none official, including: "The Treasure State" and "Big Sky Country," and slogans that include "Land of the Shining Mountains," and more recently, "The Last Best Place." The state ranks fourth in area, but 44th in population, and therefore has the third lowest population, Oregon The valley of the Willamette River in western Oregon is the most densely populated and agriculturally productive region of the state, and is home to eight of the ten most populous cities. Oregon's 2000 population was about 3.5 million, a 20.3% increase over 1990; it is estimated to have reached 3.8 million by 2008. Oregon's largest for-profit, Washington Washington (pronounced /ˈwɒʃɪŋtən/ ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the forty-second state in 1889, and Wyoming As specified in the designating legislation for the Territory of Wyoming, Wyoming's borders are lines of latitude, 41°N and 45°N, and longitude, 104°3'W and 111°3'W , making the shape of the state a latitude-longitude quadrangle. Wyoming is one of only three states (along with Colorado and Utah) to have borders along only straight latitudinal can be considered part of the Northwest, more narrowly part or all of those same states, with the exception of Wyoming and the eastern portions of Montana and Idaho, and the addition of the Canadian province of British Columbia comprise the Pacific Northwest.
The West can be divided into the Pacific States; Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington, with the term West Coast usually restricted to just California, Oregon, and Washington, and the Mountain States, always Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Alaska and Hawaii, being detached from the other western states, have few similarities with them, but are usually also classified as part of the West. Western Texas in the Chihuahuan Desert is also traditionally considered part of the Western U.S, though from a climatological perspective the West might be said to begin just west of Austin, TX where annual rainfall drops off significantly from what is typically experienced in the East, with a concurrent change in plant and animal species.
Some western states are grouped into regions with eastern states. Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota are often included in the Midwest, which also includes states like Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana—and to a lesser extent, Oklahoma—are also considered part of the South.
It is rare for any state east of the Mississippi River to be considered part of the modern west. Historically, however, the Northwest Territory was an important early territory of the U.S., comprising the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as the northeastern part of Minnesota.
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Demographics
US States in which no ethnic or racial group forms a majorityAccording to the 2000 Census, the West's population was:
- 68.5% White
- 12.1% of Some other race,
- 7.9% Asian,
- 4.9% Black or African American,
- 4.3% Two or more races,
- 1.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, and
- 0.5% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander.
- 24.3% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race).[1]
As defined by the United States Census Bureau,[2] the Western region of the United States includes 13 states (with a total 2006 estimated population of 69,355,643) and is split into two smaller units, or divisions:
- The Mountain States: Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada
- The Pacific States: Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska and Hawaii
However, the United States Census Bureau uses only one definition of the West in its reporting system, which may not coincide with what may be historically or culturally considered the West. For example, in the 2000 Census, the Census Bureau included the state with the second largest Hispanic population, Texas, in the South, included the state with the second largest American Indian population, Oklahoma, also in the South, and included the Dakotas, with their large populations of Plains Indians, in with the Midwest. However, it should be noted that the western half of Oklahoma and far West Texas, are usually neither culturally, geographically or socioeconomically identified with the South.
Statistics from the 2000 United States Census, adjusted to include the second tier of States west of the Mississippi, show that, under that definition, the West would have a population of 91,457,662, including 1,611,447 Indians, or 1.8% of the total, and 22,377,288 Hispanics (the majority Mexican), or 24.5% of the total. Indians comprise 0.9% of all Americans, and Hispanics, 12.5%. Asians, important from the very beginning in the history of the West, totaled 5,161,446, or 5.6%, with most living in the Far West. African-Americans, totaled 5,929,968, or 6.5%—lower than the national proportion (12.8%). The highest concentrations (12%) of black residents in the West are found in Texas—which is also considered a Southern state—and in California.
The West is still one of the most sparsely settled areas in the United States with 49.5 inhabitants per square mile (19/km²). Only Texas with 78.0 inhabitants/sq mi. (30/km²), Washington with 86.0 inhabitants/sq mi. (33/km²), and California with 213.4 inhabitants/sq mi. (82/km²) exceed the national average of 77.98 inhabitants/sq mi. (30/km²).
These maps from the 2000 US Census highlight differences from state to state of three minority groups. Note that most of the Native American, Hispanic, and Asian population is in the West.The entire Western region has also been strongly influenced by European, Native and Hispanic culture; it contains the largest number of minorities in the U.S. and encompasses the only four American states where all racial groups including Caucasians are a minority (California, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Texas). While most of the studies of racial dynamics in America such as riots in Los Angeles have been written about European and African Americans, in many cities in the West and California, European and African Americans together are less than half the population because of the preference for the region by Hispanics and Asians. African and European Americans, however, continue to wield a stronger political influence because of the lower rates of citizenship and voting among Asians and Hispanics.
Because the tide of development had not yet reached most of the West when conservation became a national issue, agencies of the federal government own and manage vast areas of land. (The most important among these are the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management within the Interior Department, and the U. S. Forest Service within the Agriculture Department.) National parks are reserved for recreational activities such as fishing, camping, hiking, and boating, but other government lands also allow commercial activities like ranching, logging and mining. In recent years, some local residents who earn their livelihoods on federal land have come into conflict with the land's managers, who are required to keep land use within environmentally acceptable limits.
The largest city in the region is Los Angeles, located on the West Coast. Other West Coast cities include San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, San Bernardino, Sacramento, Seattle, and Portland. Prominent cities in the Mountain States include Denver, Colorado Springs, Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City.
Natural geography
The geography of the Western United States is split into three major physiographic divisions: the Rocky Mountain System (areas 16-19 on map), the Intermontane Plateaus (20-22), and the Pacific Mountain System (23-25).Along the Pacific Ocean coast lie the Coast Ranges, which, while not approaching the scale of the Rockies, are formidable nevertheless. They collect a large part of the airborne moisture moving in from the ocean. Even in the relatively arid climate of Central California, the Coast Ranges squeeze enough water out of the clouds to support the growth of coast redwoods. East of the Coast Ranges lie several cultivated fertile valleys, notably the San Joaquin Valley of California and the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
Beyond the valleys lie the Sierra Nevada in the south and the Cascade Range in the north. These mountains are some of the highest in the United States. Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4,421 m) the tallest peak in the contiguous 48 states, is in the Sierra Nevada. The Cascades are also volcanic. Mount Rainier, a volcano in Washington, is also well over 14,000 feet (4,300 m). Mount St. Helens, a volcano in the Cascades erupted explosively in 1980. A major volcanic eruption at Mount Mazama around 4860 BCE formed Crater Lake. These mountain ranges see heavy precipitation, capturing most of the moisture that remains after the Coast Ranges, and creating a rain shadow to the east forming vast stretches of arid land. These dry areas encompass much of Nevada, Utah and Arizona. The Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert along with other deserts are found here.
Beyond the deserts lie the Rocky Mountains. In the north, they run almost immediately east of the Cascade Range, so that the desert region is only a few miles wide by the time one reaches the Canadian border. The Rockies are hundreds of miles wide, and run uninterrupted from New Mexico to Alaska. The tallest peaks of the Rockies, some of which are over 14,000 feet (4,250 meters approx.), are found in central Colorado.
The West has several long rivers that empty into the Pacific Ocean, while the eastern rivers run into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River forms the easternmost possible boundary for the West today. The Missouri River, a tributary of the Mississippi, flows from its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains eastward across the Great Plains, a vast grassy plateau, before sloping gradually down to the forests and hence to the Mississippi. The Colorado River snakes through the Mountain states, at one point forming the Grand Canyon. The Colorado is a major source of water in the Southwest and many dams, such as the Hoover Dam, form reservoirs along it. So much water is drawn for drinking water throughout the West and irrigation in California that in some years, water from the Colorado no longer reaches the Gulf of California. The Columbia River, the largest river in volume flowing into the Pacific Ocean from North America, and its tributary, the Snake River, water the Pacific Northwest. The Platte runs through Nebraska and was known for being a mile (2 km) wide but only a half-inch (1 cm) deep. The Rio Grande forms the border between Texas and Mexico before turning due north and splitting New Mexico in half.
According to the United States Coast Guard, "The Western Rivers System consists of the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Cumberland, Arkansas and White Rivers and their tributaries, and certain other rivers that flow towards the Gulf of Mexico."[3]
Climate and agriculture
Most of the public land held by the U.S. National Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management is in the Western states. Public lands account for 25 to 75 percent of the total land area in these states.[4] Bureau of Reclamation regionsAs a very gross generalization, the climate of the West can be described as overall semiarid; however, parts of the West get extremely high amounts of rain and/or snow, and still other parts are true desert and get less than 10 inches of rain per year. Also, the climate of the West is quite unstable, and areas that are normally wet can be very dry for years and vice versa.
The seasonal temperatures vary greatly throughout the West. Low elevations on the West Coast have warm to very hot summers and get little to no snow. The Desert Southwest has very hot summers and mild winters. The Inland Northwest has a continental climate of warm to hot summers and cold to bitter cold winters.
Annual rainfall is greater in the eastern portions, gradually tapering off until reaching the Pacific Coast where it again increases. In fact, the greatest annual rainfall in the United States falls in the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest. Drought is much more common in the West than the rest of the United States. The driest place recorded in the U.S. is Death Valley, California.[5]
Violent thunderstorms occur east of the Rockies. Tornadoes occur every spring on the southern plains, with the most common and most destructive centered on Tornado Alley, which covers eastern portions of the West, (Texas to North Dakota), and all states in between and to the east.
Agriculture varies depending on rainfall, irrigation, soil, elevation, and temperature extremes. The arid regions generally support only livestock grazing, chiefly beef cattle. The wheat belt extends from Texas through the Dakotas, producing most of the wheat and soybeans in the U.S. and exporting more to the rest of the world. Irrigation in the Southwest allows the growing of great quantities of fruits, nuts, and vegetables as well as grain, hay, and flowers. Texas is a major cattle and sheep raising area, as well as the nation's largest producer of cotton. Washington is famous for its apples, and Idaho for its potatoes. California and Arizona are major producers of citrus crops, although growing metropolitan sprawl is absorbing much of this land.
Local state and Government officials started to understand, after several surveys made during the latter part of the nineteenth century, that only action by the federal government could provide water resources needed to support the development of the West[citation needed]. Starting in 1902, Congress passed a series of acts authorizing the establishment of the United States Bureau of Reclamation to oversee water development projects in seventeen western states.
During the first half of the 20th century, dams and irrigation projects provided water for rapid agricultural growth throughout the West and brought prosperity for several states, where agriculture had previously only been subsistence level. Following World War II, the West's cities experienced an economic and population boom. The population growth, mostly in the Southwest, has strained water and power resources, with water diverted from agricultural uses to major population centers, such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Geology
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Plains make up most of the eastern half of the West, underlain with sedimentary rock from the Upper Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras. The Rocky Mountains expose igneous and metamorphic rock from both the Precambrian and the Post Precambrian periods. The Inter-mountain States and Pacific Northwest have huge expanses of volcanic rock from the Cenozoic period. Salt flats and salt lakes reveal a time when the great inland seas covered much of what is now the West. The Pacific states are the most geologically active areas in the United States. Earthquakes cause major damage every few years in California. While the Pacific states are the most volcanically active areas, extinct volcanoes and lava flows are found throughout most of the western half of the West.
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Columbia Coast |
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Extinct Volcano, Utah |
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Western Rocky Mountains |
Pacific Ocean at Pebble Beach, California |
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The Colorado River |
The Colorado Plateau in northwest New Mexico |
The Mexico – United States border at Nogales |
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Mount McKinley, Alaska. The highest point in North America. |
Green River in Utah. |
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The Great Basin in winter. |
History and culture
Facing both the Pacific Ocean and the Mexican border, the West has been shaped by a variety of ethnic groups. Hawaii is the only state in the union in which Asian Americans outnumber white American residents. Asians from many countries have settled in California and other coastal states in several waves of immigration since the 1800s, contributing to the Gold Rush, the building of the transcontinental railroad, agriculture, and more recently, high technology.
The southwestern border states—California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas—all have large Hispanic populations, and the many Spanish place names attest to their history as former Spanish and Mexican territories.
The West also contains much of the Native American population in the U.S., particularly in the large reservations in the mountain and desert states.
Hollywood is a well-known area of Los Angeles and the symbolic center of the American film industry.The largest concentrations for black Americans in the West can be found in Southern California, Las Vegas, and parts of Colorado and Arizona.
Alaska—the northernmost state in the Union—is a vast land of few people, many of them native, and of great stretches of wilderness, protected in national parks and wildlife refuges. Hawaii's location makes it a major gateway between the U.S. and Asia, as well as a center for tourism.
In the Pacific Coast states, the wide areas filled with small towns, farms, and forests are supplemented by a few big port cities which have evolved into world centers for the media and technology industries. Now the second largest city in the nation, Los Angeles is best known as the home of the Hollywood film industry; the area around Los Angeles also was a major center for the aerospace industry by World War II, though Boeing, located in Washington state would lead the aerospace industry. Fueled by the growth of Los Angeles—as well as the San Francisco Bay area, including Silicon Valley—California has become the most populous of all the states. Oregon and Washington have also seen rapid growth with the rise of Boeing and Microsoft along with agriculture and resource based industries. The desert and mountain states have relatively low population densities, and developed as ranching and mining areas which are only recently becoming urbanized. Most of them have highly individualistic cultures, and have worked to balance the interests of urban development, recreation, and the environment.
Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument, Utah contains petroglyphs left by the first inhabitants of the American Southwest.Culturally distinctive points include the large Mormon population in the Mormon Corridor, including southeastern Idaho, Utah, Northern Arizona and Nevada; the extravagant casino resort towns of Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada; and, of course, the many Native American tribal reservations.
American Old West
Main article: American Old WestMajor settlement of the western territories by migrants from the states in the east developed rapidly in the 1840s, largely[citation needed] through the Oregon Trail and the California Gold Rush of 1849; California experienced such a rapid growth in a few short months that it was admitted to statehood in 1850 without the normal transitory phase of becoming an official territory. The largest[citation needed] migration in American history occurred in the 1840s as the Latter Day Saints left the Midwest for the safety of the West. Both Omaha, Nebraska and St. Louis, Missouri laid claim to the title, "Gateway to the West" during this period. Omaha, home to the Union Pacific Railroad and the Mormon Trail, made its fortunes on outfitting settlers; St. Louis built itself upon the vast fur trade in the West before its settlement.
The 1850s were marked by political controversies which were part of the national issues leading to the Civil War, though California had been established as a non-slave state in the Compromise of 1850; California played little role in the war itself due to its geographic distance from major campaigns. In the aftermath of the Civil War, many former Confederate partisans migrated to California during the end of the Reconstruction period.
American cowboy circa 1887The history of the American West in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century has acquired a cultural mythos in the literature and cinema of the United States[citation needed]. The image of the cowboy, the homesteader and westward expansion took real events and transmuted them into a myth of the west which has influenced American culture since at least the 1920s.
Writers as diverse as Bret Harte and Zane Grey celebrated or derided cowboy culture, while artists such as Frederic Remington created western art as a method of recording the expansion into the west[citation needed]. The American cinema, in particular, created the genre of the western movie, which, in many cases, use the West as a metaphor for the virtue of self-reliance and an American ethos. The contrast between the romanticism of culture about the West and the actuality of the history of the westward expansion has been a theme of late Twentieth and early Twenty-First century scholarship about the West[citation needed]. Cowboy culture has become embedded in the American experience as a common cultural touchstone, and modern forms as diverse as country and western music and the works of artist Georgia O'Keeffe have celebrated the supposed sense of isolation and independence of spirit inspired by the unpopulated and relatively harsh climate of the region[citation needed].
As a result of the various periods of rapid growth, many new residents were migrants who were seeking to make a new start after previous histories of either personal failure or hostilities developed in their previous communities[citation needed]. With these and other migrants who harbored more commercial goals in the opening country, the area developed a strong ethos of self-determinism and individual freedom[citation needed], as communities were created whose residents shared no prior connection or common set of ideals and allegiances. The open land of the region allowed residents to live at a much greater distance from neighbors than had been possible in eastern cities, and an ethic of tolerance for the different values and goals of other residents developed. California's state constitutions (in both 1849 and 1879) were largely drafted by groups which sought a strong emphasis on individual property rights and personal freedom, arguably at the expense of ideals tending toward civic community[citation needed].
The twentieth century
Main article: 20th centuryBy 1890, the frontier was gone.[6] The advent of the automobile enabled the average American to tour the West. Western businessmen promoted U.S. Route 66 as a means to bring tourism and industry to the West. In the 1950s, representatives from all the western states built the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center to showcase western culture and greet travelers from the East. During the latter half of the twentieth century, several transcontinental interstate highways crossed the West bringing more trade and tourists from the East. In the news, reports spoke of oil boom towns in Texas and Oklahoma rivaling the old mining camps for their lawlessness, of the Dust Bowl forcing children of the original homesteaders even further west. The movies replaced the dime novel as the chief entertainment source featuring western fiction[citation needed].
Although there has been segregation, along with accusations of racial profiling and police brutality towards minorities due to issues such as illegal immigration and a racial shift in neighborhood demographics, sometimes leading to racially based riots, the West has a continuing reputation for being open-minded and for being one of the most racially progressive areas in the United States.[citation needed]
Major Population Centers
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Major Metropolitan Areas
- The city of El Paso, Texas, although belonging to a state considered part of the Southern United States, is also considered part of the Western United States.
Politics
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The region's distance from historical centers of power in the East, and the celebrated "frontier spirit" of its settlers offer two clichés for explaining the region's independent, heterogeneous politics. Historically, the West was the first region to see widespread women's suffrage. California birthed both the property rights and conservation movements, and spawned such phenomena as the Taxpayer Revolt and the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. It has also produced three U.S. presidents: Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
The prevalence of libertarian political thought, even if not labeled as such, can be widely observed. For example, the majority of Western states have legalized medicinal marijuana (all but Utah, and Wyoming) and some forms of gambling (except Utah); Oregon and Washington have legalized physician-assisted suicide; Utah has a long history of former polygamous territorial leaders; and most rural counties in Nevada allow licensed brothels. There is less resistance to the legal recognition of same-sex unions: California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington recognize them, and only 28%[citation needed] of all western residents are against legal recognition (compared to the 48%[citation needed] in southern states).
The West Coast leans toward the Democratic Party[citation needed]. San Francisco's two main political parties are the Green Party and the Democratic Party. Seattle has historically been a center of radical left-wing politics; the union Industrial Workers of the World is particularly active. A former mayor of Salt Lake City, Rocky Anderson, supports same-sex marriage [1], and Denver's residents have legalized the private use of marijuana, but only for persons aged 21 and older (Colorado's age of majority is 18) [2]. Hawaii has come closest to adopting single payer healthcare financing in the U.S.[citation needed] Both the Democratic leaders of the U.S. Congress are from the region: Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Interior areas are more Republican, with Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming being Republican strongholds, and Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico being swing states. The state of Arizona has been won by the Republican presidential candidate in every election except one since 1948, while the states of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming have been won by the Republican presidential candidate in every election since 1964.
As the fastest-growing demographic group, Latinos are hotly contested by both parties[citation needed]; immigration remains an important political issue for this group. Backlash against illegal immigration led to the passage of California Proposition 187 in 1994, a ballot initiative which would have denied many public services to illegal immigrants. Association of this proposal with the California Republicans, especially incumbent governor Pete Wilson, is credited[citation needed] with driving many Hispanic voters to the Democrats.
See also
- Art of the West (magazine)
- California cuisine
- Folklore of the United States
- High Country News
- History of the west coast of North America
- Western Canada
- Western White House
References
- ^ US Census Bureau
- ^ US Census Bureau's official map, regdiv.pdf
- ^ "Inland Aids to Navigation" (PDF). Coast Guard Auxiliary: National ATON-CU study guide (Section XIV). United States Coast Guard. pp. 14–2. http://uscg.mil/hq/cg3/cg3pcx/publications/auxmanuals/ATON2000StudyGuideSec14Inland.pdf. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
- ^ Western States Data Public Land Acreage
- ^ Spothopping.com
- ^ Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History, 1920, ISBN 0486291677, Ch.1: "In a recent bulletin of the Superintendent of the Census for 1890 appear these significant words: "Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line. In the discussion of its extent, its westward movement, etc., it can not, therefore, any longer have a place in the census reports." On-line version of the book
Further reading
- Beck, Warren A., Haase, Ynez D.; Historical Atlas of the American West. University of Oklahoma Press, Oklahoma, 1989. ISBN 0-8061-2193-9
- Lamar, Howard. The New Encyclopedia of the American West. Yale University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-300-07088-8
- Milner II, Clyde A; O'Connor, Carol A.; Sandweiss, Martha A. The Oxford History of the American West. Oxford University Press; Reprint edition, 1996. ISBN 0-19-511212-1
- Phillips, Charles; Axlerod, Alan; editor. The Encyclopedia of the American West. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996. ISBN 0-02-897495-6
- White, Richard. "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A New History of the American West. University of Oklahoma Press; Reprint edition, 1993. ISBN 0-8061-2567-5
External links
- History of the American West Photo collection at Library of Congress
- Photographs of the American West: 1861-1912 US National Archives & Records Administration
- Census 2000 Briefs and Special Reports at the website of the US Census Bureau
- Western Region Labor Statistics Bureau of Labor Statistics
- History: American West, Vlib.us
- Guide to the American West
- The American West
- Institute for the Study of the American West
- High Plains Western Heritage Center
- National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
- Museum of the American West
- Center of the American West
- History: American West, Vlib.us
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Categories: Western United States | Census regions of the United States | Regions of the United States
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Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:53:49 GMT+00:00
galleries in Griffith Park and ... Los Angeles Times (blog) ... the Autry's two existing libraries, the Institute for the Study of the American West in Griffith Park and the Braun Library at the Southwest Museum. ...
silbey
Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:16:08 GM
Throughout . American. history, generals have pushed their own ideas, often to the chagrin of their commanders in chief. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, whom President Obama last month fired, was the latest in a line of generals who found ...
Q. My teacher asked me in class and i had no idea what she was talking about. will someone help me?
Asked by NiCA. - Tue Dec 4 00:07:05 2007 - - 4 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Lewis and Clark were sanctioned by the President Jackson to find a water route to the Pacific. Instead, Lewis and Clark made scientific observations about the West--plants, animals, terrain, and tribes met along the way. In reality, they did not accomplish a great feat. Rather, they explored the recent Louisiana Purchase from France, thus adding to knowledge of the land. All the while, however, Lewis and Clark were not greeted friendly by local tribes. In fact, no where in there journals does it mention any intent of making peace with the Indians. They do point out the potential in natural resources and land usage. Lewis and Clark were not great men. They are a myth. They actually believed they would find Unicorns and Alligators up the… [cont.]
Answered by Luther Blissett - Tue Dec 4 00:14:32 2007
