Western United States

Coordinates: 40°N 113°W / 40°N 113°W / 40; -113
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Politics of the Western United States
)
"American West" redirects here. For the similarly named airline, see America West Airlines.
"Western territories" redirects here. For the part of Poland, see Recovered Territories. For the western territories of other countries and continents, see West (disambiguation).
"West of the Rockies" redirects here. For the 1929 American western silent film, see West of the Rockies (film).

Western United States
American West, Far West, the West
Region
Left-right from top:
2020)[3]
 • Total78,588,572
 • Density42/sq mi (16/km2)
DemonymWesterner
GDP (nominal)
[4]
 • Total$5.619 trillion (2019)
 • per capita$71,719 (2019)

The Western United States, also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, and the West, is the region comprising the westernmost U.S. states. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term the West changed. Before around 1800, the crest of the Appalachian Mountains was seen as the western frontier. The frontier moved westward and eventually the lands west of the Mississippi River were considered the West.[5]

The U.S. Census Bureau's definition of the 13 westernmost states includes the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin to the Pacific Coast, and the mid-Pacific islands state, Hawaii. To the east of the Western United States is the Midwestern United States and the Southern United States, with Canada to the north, and Mexico to the south.

The West contains several major

shoreline of the American Pacific Coast; and the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest
.

Geographic definition

Further information: American frontier
While the West is defined by many occupations, the American cowboy is often used as an icon of the region, here portrayed by C. M. Russell.
The West, as the most recently settled part of the United States, is often known for broad highways and open space. Pictured is a road in Utah to Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation.

The Western United States is the largest region of the country, covering nearly half the land area of the contiguous

Sierra Nevada, and the Cascade Range, numerous glaciers, and the western edge of the Great Plains. It also contains the majority of the desert areas located in the United States. The Mojave and the Great Basin deserts lie entirely within the Western region, along with parts of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts (the latter extends significantly into Texas, while both extend into Mexico). Given this expansive and diverse geography it is no wonder the region is difficult to define precisely. Sensing a possible shift in the popular understanding of the West as a region in the early 1990s, historian Walter Nugent conducted a survey of three groups of professionals with ties to the region: a large group of Western historians (187 respondents), and two smaller groups, 25 journalists and publishers and 39 Western authors.[6] A majority of the historian respondents placed the eastern boundary of the West east of the Census definition out on the eastern edge of the Great Plains or on the Mississippi River
. The survey respondents as a whole showed just how little agreement there was on the boundaries of the West.

Subregions

The region is split into two smaller units or divisions, by the U.S. Census Bureau:[1]

Mountain states
Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada
Pacific states
Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, and Hawaii

Other classifications distinguish between Southwest and Northwest. Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas, and the Oklahoma panhandle are typically considered to be the Southwest states. Meanwhile, the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington can be considered part of the Northwest or Pacific Northwest.

The term

continental U.S. and does not necessarily fit in any of these subregions
.

State 2020 Census[3] 2010 Census[7] Change Area
[2] 		Density
 Arizona 7,151,502 6,392,017 +11.88% 113,594.08 sq mi (294,207.3 km2) 63/sq mi (24/km2)
 Colorado 5,773,714 5,029,196 +14.80% 103,641.89 sq mi (268,431.3 km2) 56/sq mi (22/km2)
 Utah 3,271,616 2,763,885 +18.37% 82,169.62 sq mi (212,818.3 km2) 40/sq mi (15/km2)
 Nevada 3,104,614 2,700,551 +14.96% 109,781.18 sq mi (284,332.0 km2) 28/sq mi (11/km2)
 New Mexico 2,117,522 2,059,179 +2.83% 121,298.15 sq mi (314,160.8 km2) 17/sq mi (7/km2)
 Idaho 1,839,106 1,567,582 +17.32% 82,643.12 sq mi (214,044.7 km2) 22/sq mi (9/km2)
 Montana 1,084,225 989,415 +9.58% 145,545.80 sq mi (376,961.9 km2) 7/sq mi (3/km2)
 Wyoming 576,851 563,626 +2.35% 97,093.14 sq mi (251,470.1 km2) 6/sq mi (2/km2)
Mountain 24,919,150 22,065,451 +12.93% 855,766.98 sq mi (2,216,426.3 km2) 29/sq mi (11/km2)
 California 39,538,223 37,254,523 +6.13% 155,779.22 sq mi (403,466.3 km2) 254/sq mi (98/km2)
 Washington 7,705,281 6,724,540 +14.58% 66,455.52 sq mi (172,119.0 km2) 116/sq mi (45/km2)
 Oregon 4,237,256 3,831,074 +10.60% 95,988.01 sq mi (248,607.8 km2) 44/sq mi (17/km2)
 Hawaii 1,455,271 1,360,301 +6.98% 6,422.63 sq mi (16,634.5 km2) 227/sq mi (87/km2)
 Alaska 733,391 710,231 +3.26% 570,640.95 sq mi (1,477,953.3 km2) 1/sq mi (0/km2)
Pacific 53,669,422 49,880,669 +7.60% 895,286.33 sq mi (2,318,781.0 km2) 60/sq mi (23/km2)
West 78,588,572 71,946,120 +9.23% 1,751,053.31 sq mi (4,535,207.3 km2) 45/sq mi (17/km2)

Outlying areas

Ofu Beach on Ofu Island in American Samoa

The three inhabited

FEMA,[11] and the USGS.[12]

Territory 2020 Population
Estimate
[13][14][15] 		2010 Census
population[16] 		Change Area
[13][14][15] 		Density
 American Samoa 49,437 55,519 −10.95% 224 km2 (86 sq mi) 221/km2 (572/sq mi)
 Guam 168,485 159,358 +5.73% 544 km2 (210 sq mi) 310/km2 (802/sq mi)
 Northern Mariana Islands 51,433 53,833 −4.46% 464 km2 (179 sq mi) 111/km2 (287/sq mi)

Demographics

Ethnic origins in the Western U.S.

The population distribution by race in the Western United States (2010):[17]

As defined by the United States Census Bureau, the Western region of the United States includes 13 states,[1] with a total 2020 population of 78,588,572.[3]

The West is one of the most sparsely settled areas in the United States with 49.5 inhabitants per square mile (19.1 inhabitants/km2). Only Texas with 78.0 inhabitants/sq mi (30.1 inhabitants/km2), Washington with 86.0 inhabitants/sq mi (33.2 inhabitants/km2), and California with 213.4 inhabitants/sq mi (82.4 inhabitants/km2) exceed the national average of 77.98 inhabitants/sq mi (30.11 inhabitants/km2).

These maps from the 2000 US Census highlight differences from state to state of three minority groups. Most of the American Indian, Hispanic, and Asian population is in the West.

The entire Western region has also been strongly influenced by

African-Americans, in many cities in the West and California, whites and blacks 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
.

The West also contains much of the

Mountain and Desert States
.

The largest concentrations for

Fresno, San Francisco, Seattle, Tacoma, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver, and Colorado Springs
.

The Western United States has a higher sex ratio (more males than females) than any other region in the United States.[18]

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

Mountain States include Denver, Colorado Springs, Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Reno, Salt Lake City, Boise, El Paso, and Billings
.

Natural geography

major physiographic regions: the Rocky Mountains (16–19), the Intermontane Plateaus (20–22), and the Pacific Mountains
(23–25)

Along the Pacific Ocean coast lie the Coast Ranges, which, while not approaching the scale of the Rocky Mountains, are formidable nevertheless. They collect a large part of the airborne moisture moving in from the ocean. East of the Coast Ranges lie several cultivated fertile valleys, notably the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys of California and the Willamette Valley of Oregon.

Zion National Park in southern Utah is one of five national parks in the state.
Big Sur, California
The Mojave Desert covers much of the Southwestern United States.
Grand Canyon, Arizona

Beyond the valleys lie the

Sierra Nevada. The Cascades are also volcanic. Mount Rainier, a volcano in Washington, is also 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 BC 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.

Red sunset twilight in Landers in the High Desert region of California
The High Desert region of Oregon
Feral horses in the Pryor Mountains of Southeast Montana
Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

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 Canada–US border. The Rockies are hundreds of miles wide and run uninterrupted from New Mexico to Alaska. The Rocky Mountain Region is the highest overall area of the United States, with an average elevation of above 4,000 feet (1,200 m). The tallest peaks of the Rockies, 54 of which are over 14,000 feet (4,300 m), are found in central and western Colorado. East of the Rocky Mountains is the Great Plains, the western portions (for example, the eastern half of Colorado) of which are generally considered to be part of the western United States.

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 River 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 most years, water from the Colorado River 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

White Rivers and their tributaries, and certain other rivers that flow towards the Gulf of Mexico."[19] The Ohio River portion of the system includes parts of several Atlantic coastal states, from Georgia to New York.[20]

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.[21]

The climate of the West is semi-arid, yet parts of the region get high amounts of rain or snow. Other parts are true desert which receive less than 5 inches (130 mm) of rain per year. The climate is increasingly unstable, and subject to periods of severe drought.[22]

The seasonal temperatures vary greatly throughout the West. Low elevations on the

Inland Northwest has a continental climate
of warm to hot summers and cold to bitterly cold winters.

Annual rainfall is greater in the eastern portions, gradually tapering off until reaching the Pacific Coast where it increases again. 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.[23] In Western states, drought is closely associated with fire risk, and there have been a number of notable wildfires causing extensive property damage and wildlife habitat destruction. The Western United States is predicted to experience drought-like conditions for much of the 21st century.[22]

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 growth 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, however, declining supplies of water, as well as urban sprawl have contributed to a sharp decline in citrus production in Arizona.[24] Many varieties of chile peppers are grown in the valleys of New Mexico.[25][26]

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 states of New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada, has strained water and power resources, with water diverted from agricultural uses to major population centers, such as the Las Vegas Valley and Los Angeles.

Geology

Plains make up much of the eastern portion of the West, underlain with sedimentary rock from the Upper Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras. The Rocky Mountains expose igneous and metamorphic rock both from the Precambrian and from the Phanerozoic eon. The Inter-mountain States and Pacific Northwest have huge expanses of volcanic rock from the Cenozoic era. 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.

Pacific states are the most volcanically active areas, extinct volcanoes
and lava flows are found throughout most of the West.

Wildlife

This section is an excerpt from Fauna of the United States § Western United States.[edit]
lower 48
states.
Mountain lions
live throughout the western U.S.

The ecoregions and ecology found in the Western United States are extremely varied. For instance, large areas of land are made up of everything from sand dunes in the

alpine glaciers in the lower 48. The densely forested areas found in Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana have mostly species adapted to living in temperate climates, while Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, southern Utah, and New Mexico
have a fauna resembling its position in the dry deserts with temperature extremes.

The western continental coast of the U.S., just as the East Coast, varies from a colder-to-warmer climate from north to south. Few species live throughout the entire West Coast, however, there are some, including the

California Channel Islands. In most of the contiguous Western U.S. are mule deer, white-tailed antelope squirrels, cougars, American badgers, coyotes, hawks
and several species of snakes and lizards are common.

While the

Southwest. The Sonoran Desert has eleven species of rattlesnakes - more than anywhere else in the world.[27]

Along the southwestern border there are

ocelots. Other mammals include the Virginia opossum, which occurs throughout California and coastal areas in Oregon and Washington. The North American beaver and mountain beaver live in forested areas of Washington, Oregon and Northern California. The kit fox lives throughout Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, while the gray fox
occurs throughout the Western U.S.

The
ring-tailed cat occurs throughout Arizona, New Mexico, Western Texas, Utah, Colorado, and most of California. The American black bear
occurs in most western states, including Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and Colorado.

History

Main articles: American frontier and Timeline of the American Old West
Early Native American tribal territories

The Western United States has been populated by

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.[28]

One of the largest migrations in American history occurred in the 1840s as the Latter Day Saints left the Midwest to build a theocracy in Utah.

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 battles over the expansion of slavery into the western territories,

issues leading to the Civil War.[29]

Between 1863 and 1869, North America's

eastern US with the Pacific coast
. The resulting railroad connection revolutionized the settlement and economy of the American West by making the transportation of passengers and freight quicker, safer, and cheaper.

The first transcontinental railroad played a pivotal role in the history of the Western United States.

The history of the American West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries has acquired a cultural mythos in the literature and cinema of the United States. The image of the

homesteader, and westward expansion took real events and transmuted them into a myth of the west which has shaped much of American popular culture since the late 19th century.[30]

Writers as diverse as

country and western music have celebrated the sense of isolation and independence of spirit inspired by the frontiersmen on "virgin land".[31]

20th century

Western United States in 1908 from The Harmsworth atlas and Gazetter
U.S. Route 66 accelerated the development of the Western United States.

The advent of the automobile enabled the average American to tour the West. Western businessmen promoted 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 20th century, several transcontinental interstate highways crossed the West bringing more trade and tourists from the East. Oil boom towns in Texas and Oklahoma rivaled the old mining camps for their rawness and wealth. The Dust Bowl forced children of the original homesteaders even further west.[32]

The movies became America's chief entertainment source featuring western fiction, later the community of Hollywood in Los Angeles became the headquarters of the mass media such as radio and television production.[33]

Portland metropolitan area.[34][35]

Since the mid-1970s, historians of the West have emphasized the

GI Bill to buy suburban homes, many of them recalling rewarding wartime experience in military training facilities. The region had always been more democratic with greater racial and gender equality, and continued as a national pacesetter in modernization. New problems emerged, especially environmental issues where westerners took the lead in areas such as the allocation of scarce water resources as well as dealing with smog and air pollution. More recently historians have looked at nuances, pointing out that some of the trends began before 1941.[36]

Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiians
.

Culture

Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument, Utah, contains petroglyphs left by the first inhabitants of the American Southwest.
The pioneers were among the earliest European Americans to settle in the western frontier.

Historically, the traditional culture of the Western United States has been defined by the

cowboys, pioneers, and Native Americans who first inhabited the Wild West.[38][39] The sparse geography of the western deserts (Mojave Desert, Great Basin Desert) and isolated small towns, combined with the broad freeways (U.S. Route 66) and long railroads (First transcontinental railroad), have contributed to the popular image of the west as a desolate, open space full of unending roads.[6]

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. People from many countries in Asia settled in California and other coastal states in several waves of immigration since the 19th century, contributing to the Gold rush, the building of the transcontinental railroad, agriculture, and more recently, high technology.

The border states—California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas—and other southwestern states such as Colorado, Utah, and Nevada all have large Hispanic populations, and the many Spanish place names attest to their history as former Spanish and Mexican territories. Mexican-Americans have also had a growing population in Northwestern states of Oregon and Washington, as well as the southern states of Texas and Oklahoma.

American film industry
.

In the

San Francisco Bay area, including Silicon Valley, the center of America's high tech industry, California has become the most populous of all the 50 states. Oregon and Washington have also seen rapid growth with the rise of Boeing and Microsoft
along with agriculture and resource based industries.

wildlife refuges
. Hawaii's location makes it a major gateway between the United States and Asia, as well as a center for tourism.

The

Mountain States subregion includes Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming
. The mountain states have relatively low population densities, and developed as ranching and mining areas that only recently became urbanized. Most of them have highly individualistic cultures, and have worked to balance the interests of urban development, recreation, and the environment.

Culturally distinctive points of the mountain states include the large

Mormon Corridor, including southeastern Idaho, Utah, Northern Arizona, and Nevada; the extravagant casino resort towns of Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada; and the numerous American Indian
tribal reservations.

Major metropolitan areas

These are the largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) with a population above 500,000 in the 13 Western states. Population figures are as of April 1, 2020, as enumerated by the United States Census Bureau:[40]

Rank
(West)		 Rank
(USA)[40]		 MSA Population State(s)    
1 2
MSA
 13,200,998 California Los Angeles skyline
2 11 Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler MSA 4,845,832 Arizona Phoenix cityscape
3 12 San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley MSA 4,749,008 California San Francisco cityscape
4 13 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA 4,599,839 California San Bernardino skyline
5 15 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue MSA 4,018,762 Washington Seattle skyline
6 17
MSA
 3,298,634 California Downtown San Diego
7 19 Denver-Aurora-Lakewood MSA 2,963,821 Colorado Downtown Denver
8 25
MSA
 2,512,859 Oregon
Washington		 Portland, Oregon, from the east
9 26 Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA 2,397,382 California The Sacramento Riverfront
10 29 Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise MSA 2,265,461 Nevada The Las Vegas Strip
11 35
MSA
 2,000,468 California Downtown San Jose
12 47 Salt Lake City MSA 1,257,936 Utah Salt Lake City
13 53 Tucson MSA 1,043,433 Arizona Tucson, Arizona
14 54 Honolulu MSA 1,016,508 Hawaii Downtown Honolulu
15 56 Fresno MSA 1,008,654 California Downtown Fresno
16 61 Albuquerque MSA 916,528 New Mexico Downtown Albuquerque
17 62 Bakersfield MSA 909,235 California Downtown Bakersfield
18 70 Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA 843,843 California Aerial view of Ventura
19 75 Stockton MSA 779,233 California The University of the Pacific in Stockton
20 77 Boise City MSA 764,718 Idaho Idaho State Capitol building in Boise
21 79 Colorado Springs MSA 755,105 Colorado Downtown Colorado Springs
22 86
MSA
 694,863 Utah Downtown Ogden
23 89
MSA
 671,185 Utah Downtown Provo
24 99 Spokane-Spokane Valley MSA 585,784 Washington Downtown Spokane
25 103 Modesto MSA 552,878 California The Modesto Arch

Other population centers

Politics

States where state-level laws allowed legalized medicinal marijuana before 2005
State laws regarding assisted suicide in the United States
  Legal
  Legal under court ruling1
  Illegal
1 In its 2009 decision Baxter v. Montana, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that assisted suicide did not violate Montana legal precedent or state statutes, even though no Montana laws specifically allowed it.
States that have no income tax at the state level
Further information: Coastal California § Politics, and Left Coast

The region's distance from historical centers of power in the East, and the celebrated "

Taxpayer Revolt and the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. It has also produced three presidents: Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan
.

The prevalence of

medicinal marijuana (all but Idaho and Wyoming) and some forms of gambling (except Utah); Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Montana have legalized physician-assisted suicide; most rural counties in Nevada allow licensed brothels, and voters in Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington have legalized recreational use of marijuana.[42]

California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Hawaii and New Mexico lean toward the Democratic Party. In recent times, as seen in the 2020 United States presidential election and 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, Arizona is also beginning to lean towards the Democratic Party as well. San Francisco's two main political parties are the Green Party and the Democratic Party. One of the longest-serving Democratic congressional leaders is from the region: former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi of California.

Alaska and most Mountain states are more Republican, with Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming being Republican strongholds. The state of Arizona has been won by the Republican presidential candidate in every election except three times since 1948, but in 2020 Arizona voted Democratic. Also, in 2018 and 2020, the GOP lost both U.S. Senate seats in Arizona to the Democrats. The states of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming have been won by every Republican presidential nominee since 1964.

The state of Nevada is considered a political bellwether, having correctly voted for every president except twice (in 1976 and 2016) since 1912. New Mexico too is considered a bellwether, having voted for the popular vote winner in every presidential election since statehood, except in 1976.

As the fastest-growing demographic group, after

California Proposition 187 in 1994, a ballot initiative which would have denied many public services to them. Association of this proposal with California Republicans, especially incumbent governor Pete Wilson, drove many Hispanic voters to the Democrats.[43]

The following table shows the breakdown of party affiliation of governors, attorneys general, state legislative houses, and U.S. congressional delegation for the Western states, as of 2019[update].

State Governor Attorney General Upper House Majority Lower House Majority Senior U.S. Senator Junior U.S. Senator U.S. House Delegation
AK Republican Republican Republican
13–7 		Republican
23–16–1 		Republican Republican Democratic
1–0
AZ Democratic Democratic Republican
16–14 		Republican
31–29 		Independent Democratic Republican
6–3
CA Democratic Democratic Democratic
29–11 		Democratic
61–19 		Democratic Democratic Democratic
42–11
CO Democratic Democratic Democratic
19–16 		Democratic
41–24 		Democratic Democratic Democratic
4–3
HI Democratic Democratic Democratic
24–1 		Democratic
46–5 		Democratic Democratic Democratic
2–0
ID Republican Republican Republican
28–7 		Republican
56–14 		Republican Republican Republican
2–0
MT Republican Republican Republican
30–20 		Republican
58–42 		Democratic Republican Republican
1–0
NV Republican Republican Democratic
13–8 		Democratic
29–13 		Democratic Democratic Democratic
3–1
NM Democratic Democratic Democratic
26–16 		Democratic
46–24 		Democratic Democratic Democratic
2–1
OR Democratic Democratic Democratic
19–11 		Democratic
38–22 		Democratic Democratic Democratic
4–1
UT Republican Republican Republican
23–6 		Republican
59–16 		Republican Republican Republican
4–0
WA Democratic Democratic Democratic
28–21 		Democratic
57–41 		Democratic Democratic Democratic
7–3
WY Republican Republican Republican
28–2 		Republican
51–7–2 		Republican Republican Republican
1–0

The following table shows the breakdown of party affiliation of governors, attorneys general, state legislative houses, and U.S. congressional delegation for the outlying areas of the Western United States, as of 2020.[44][45][46]

Territory Governor Attorney General Upper House Majority Lower House Majority Senior U.S. Senator Junior U.S. Senator U.S. House Delegation
AS Democratic [note 1] Non-Partisan
18–0 		Non-Partisan
21–0 		None None Republican
1–0
GU Democratic Independent Democratic
10–5 (unicameral) 		None None Democratic
1–0
MP Republican Democratic Republican
6–0–3 		Republican
13–0–7 		None None Independent
1–0

Health

The Western United States consistently ranks well in health measures. The rate of potentially preventable hospitalizations in the Western United States was consistently lower than other regions from 2005 to 2011.[47] While the proportion of maternal or neonatal hospital stays was higher in the Western United States relative to other regions, the proportion of medical stays in hospitals was lower than in other regions in 2012.[48]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Census Regions and Divisions of the United States" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 21, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  2. ^ a b "United States Summary: 2010, Population and Housing Unit Counts, 2010 Census of Population and Housing" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. September 2012. pp. V–2, 1 & 41 (Tables 1 & 18). Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  3. ^ a b c "Change in Resident Population of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico: 1910 to 2020" (PDF). Census.gov. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  4. ^ "BEA Glossary". Bureau of Economic Analysis. U.S. Department of Commerce. Archived from the original on September 28, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  5. ^ Jody Halsted (July 31, 2014). "On the road along the Mississippi River". Foxnews. Archived from the original on August 2, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
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  7. ^ "Resident Population Data: Population Change". United States Census Bureau. December 23, 2010. Archived from the original on December 25, 2010. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
  8. ^ "What Is The Ninth Circuit?". United States Courts for the Ninth Circuit. ca9.uscourts.gov.
  9. ^ "Contact Us". U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
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  11. ^ "FEMA Region IX: Recovery Division". Archived from the original on July 1, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  12. ^ "Proceedings of a Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning Workshop for the Western United States". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  13. ^ a b American Samoa. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.
  14. ^ a b c Guam. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.
  15. ^ a b c Northern Mariana Islands. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.
  16. ^ American FactFinder. 2010 U.S. Census. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
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  18. ^ "Gender in the United States". nationalatlas.gov. Archived from the original on October 18, 2005. Retrieved October 10, 2010.
  19. ^ "Inland Aids to Navigation" (PDF). Coast Guard Auxiliary: National ATON-CU study guide (Section XIV). United States Coast Guard. pp. 14–2. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 25, 2009. Retrieved March 21, 2009.
  20. ^ "Assessment of Ohio River Water Quality Conditions" (PDF). Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission. p. 10. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  21. ^ "Western States Data Public Land Acreage". www.wildlandfire.com. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved March 7, 2008.
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    ISBN 978-0-16-080173-0
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  23. ^ "Death Valley: Hottest, Driest, Lowest (SpotHopping.com)". spothopping.com.
  24. ^ Henne, Sarabeth (May 25, 2019). "Arizona citrus squeeze: Pushed by development, costs, citrus shrinks". azcentral.com and The Arizona Republic. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
  25. ^ "Chile Pepper Institute | New Mexico State University". cpi.nmsu.edu.
  26. ^ "New Mexico: Chile Capital of the World". www.newmexico.org.
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  28. ^ H. W. Brands, The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream (2002)
  29. ^ Michael Morrison, Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War (1997)
  30. ^ Gary J. Hausladen, Western Places, American Myths: How We Think About The West (U. of Nevada Press, 2006)
  31. ^ Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth (Harvard University Press, 1950)
  32. ^ Donald Worster, Dust bowl: the southern plains in the 1930s (Oxford University Press, 1982)
  33. ^ Allen John Scott, On Hollywood: The place, the industry (Princeton University Press, 2005)
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  35. ^ Earl Pomeroy, American Far West in the Twentieth Century (Yale University Press, 2008)
  36. ^ Mark Brilliant, and David M. Kennedy, eds., World War II and the West It Wrought (Stanford University Press, 2020) pp 1–3, 179–180. excerpt.
  37. ^ Canham, Matt (July 24, 2005). "Mormon Portion of Utah Population Steadily Shrinking". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  38. ^ Turner, Frederick Jackson (1920). "The Significance of the Frontier in American History". The Frontier in American History.
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  42. ^ Fischer, Jonathan L. (November 5, 2014). "Marijuana Legalization Passes in Oregon, Alaska, D.C." Slate.
  43. ^ Stephen D. Cummings and Patrick B. Reddy, California after Arnold (2009) pp. 165–170
  44. ^ "Home". Americansamoa.gov. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  45. ^ "Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Legislature". Ballotpedia.org. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
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Notes

  1. ^ In 2020 Mitzie Jessop Taase was the acting attorney general of American Samoa. It is unclear which political party she belongs to.

Further reading

Further information: Bibliography of the American frontier, Western fiction, and Western film

Surveys

Economy

  • Graham, Don. Kings of Texas: The 150-Year Saga of an American Ranching Empire. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2003.
  • Nash, Gerald D. A.P. Giannini and the Bank of America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
  • Nash, Gerald D. The Federal Landscape: An Economic History of the Twentieth-Century West. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 1999.
  • O'Mara, Margaret. The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. New York: Penguin Press, 2019.
  • Robbins, William G. Colony and Empire: The Capitalist Transformation of the American West. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1994.

Environment

Historiography

  • Billington, Ray Allen. America's Frontier Heritage. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1984.
  • Etulain, Richard W., "Clio's Disciples on the Rio Grande: Western History at the University of New Mexico", New Mexico Historical Review 87 (Summer 2012): 277–298.
  • Etulain, Richard W. Telling Western Stories: From Buffalo Bill to Larry McMurtry. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999.
  • Etulain, Richard W. The American West and Its Interpreters. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2023.
  • Etulain, Richard W. Writing Western History: Essays On Major Western Historians Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press, 2002.
  • Faragher, John Mack, ed. Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner: The Significance of the Frontier in American History and Other Essays. New York: Holt, 1994.
  • Frantz, Joe B. Aspects of the American West: Three Essays. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1976.
  • Gressley, Gene. "Whither Western American History? Speculations on a Direction," Pacific Historical Review 53, no. 4 (1984): 483–501.
  • Malone, Michael P. "Beyond the Last Frontier: Toward a New Approach to Western American History." The Western Historical Quarterly 20, no. 4 (1989): 409–27.
  • Malone, Michael P., ed. Historians and the American West. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.
  • Nash, Gerald D. Creating the West: Historical Interpretations, 1890–1990. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991.
  • Nash, Gerald D., and Richard W. Etulain. The Twentieth-Century West: Historical Interpretations. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989.
  • Norris Jr., Hundley, and John A. Schutz, ed. The American West: Frontier and Region--Interpretations by John Walton Caughey. Los Angeles, CA: Ward Ritchie Press, 1969.
  • Pomeroy, Earl. "Toward a Reorientation of Western History: Continuity and Environment." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 41, no. 4 (1955): 579–600.
  • Prince, Gregory A. Leonard Arrington and the Writing of Mormon History. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2016.
  • Rensink, Brenden W., ed. The North American West in the Twenty-First Century. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022.
  • Ridge, Martin. "The Life of an Idea: The Significance of Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis." Montana: The Magazine of Western History 41, no. 1 (1991): 2–13.
  • Sonnichsen, C. L. The Ambidextrous Historian: Historical Writers and Writing in the American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981.
  • Stegner, Wallace and Richard W. Etulain. Stegner: Conversations on History and Literature. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1983.

Labor

  • Andrews, Thomas G. Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.
  • Brykit, James W. Forging the Copper Collar: Arizona's Labor-Management War of 1901-1921. Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1982.
  • Lukas, J. Anthony. Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
  • Schwantes, Carlos Arnaldo. Radical Heritage: Labor, Socialism, and Reform in Washington and British Columbia, 1885-1917. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1979.

Military history

  • Amundson, Michael A. Yellowcake Towns : Uranium Mining Communities in the American West. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2002.
  • Bolton, Roger E. Defense Purchases and Regional Growth. Washington, D.C. 1966.
  • Brilliant, Mark and David M. Kennedy, eds. World War II and the West It Wrought. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press. 2020. excerpt
  • Clayton, James L. "Impact of the Cold War on the Economies of California and Utah." Pacific Historical Review, 36 (1967): 449–473.
  • Fernlund, Kevin J., ed. The Cold War American West, 1945–1989. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998.
  • Findlay, John M. and Hevley, Bruce W. Atomic Frontier Days : Hanford and the American West. Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest in Association with Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.
  • Heefner, Gretchen. The Missile Next Door: The Minuteman in the American Heartland. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.
  • Hevly, Bruce W. and John M. Findlay, ed. The Atomic West. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998.
  • Hull, McAllister, with Amy Bianco. Rider of the Pale Horse: A Memoir of Los Alamos and Beyond. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.
  • Hunner, Jon. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Cold War, and the Atomic West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.
  • Larson, T.A. Wyoming's War Years, 1941–1945. Laramie: University of Wyoming, 1954.
  • Lotchin, Roger. Japanese American Relocation in World War II: A Reconsideration. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
  • Lotchin, Roger W. "The Metropolitan-Military Complex in Comparative Perspective: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, 1919–1941." Journal of the West, 20 (July 1979): 19–30.
  • Martini, Edwin A. Proving Grounds: Militarized Landscapes, Weapons Testing, and the Environmental Impact of U.S. Bases. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015.
  • Nash, Gerald D. The American West Transformed: The Impact of the Second World War. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.
  • Nash, Gerald D. World War II and the West: Reshaping the Economy. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 1990.
  • Rosier, Paul C. "'They Are Ancestral Homelands': Race, Place, and Politics in Cold War Native America, 1945-1961." The Journal of American History 92, no. 4 (2006): 1300–26.
  • Szasz, Ferenc Morton. The Day the Sun Rose Twice: The Story of the Trinity Site Nuclear Explosion, July 16, 1945. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984.

Mythic West

  • Athearn, Robert G.The Mythic West in Twentieth-Century America. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1986.
  • Etulain, Richard W. Re-Imagining the Modern American West: A Century of Fiction, History, and Art. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 1996.
  • Gibson, Arrell M. The Santa Fe and Taos Colonies: Age of the Muses, 1900–1942. Norman: University of New Mexico Press, 1988.
  • Lehan, Richard. Quest West: American Intellectual and Cultural Transformations. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2014.
  • Savage Jr., William W. The Cowboy Hero: His Image in American History and Culture. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979.

Native Americans

  • Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.
  • Debo, Angie. And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes. Princeton, NJ: University of Princeton Press, 1968.
  • Deloria Jr. Vine, and Clifford M. Lytle. American Indians, American Justice. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983.
  • Fixico, Donald L. Termination and Relocation: Federal Indian Policy, 1945–1960. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986.
  • Iverson, Peter. When Indians Became Cowboys: Native Peoples and Cattle Ranching in the American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.
  • Parman, Donald Lee. Indians and the American West in the Twentieth Century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.

Politics

Reference

Religion

  • Avella, Steven M. "Catholicism in the Twentieth-Century American West: The Next Frontier." The Catholic Historical Review 97, no. 2 (2011): 219–49.
  • Stegner, Wallace. Mormon Country. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1942.

Tourism

  • Barber, Alicia. Reno’s Big Gamble: Image and Reputation in the Biggest Little City. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 2008.
  • Cottam, Erica. Hubbell Trading Post: Trade, Tourism, and the Navajo Southwest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015.
  • McCormack, Kara L. Imagining Tombstone: The Town Too Tough to Die. Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 2016.
  • Pomeroy, Earl. In Search of the Golden West: The Tourist in Western America. New York: Knopf, 1957.
  • Rothman, Hal K. Devil's Bargains: Tourism and the Twentieth-Century American West. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1998.
  • Rugh, Susan Sessions. "Branding Utah: Industrial Tourism in the Postwar American West." Western Historical Quarterly 37, no. 4 (2006): 445–472.
  • Stratton, David H. Tucumcari Tonite!: A Story of Railroads, Route 66, and the Waning of a Western Town. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2022.
  • Wrobel, David. Promised Lands: Promotion, Memory, and the Creation of the American West. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002.

Urban West

External links

40°N 113°W / 40°N 113°W / 40; -113

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