The Frontier
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(Redirected from American West)
The Frontier in the United States and Canada was the zone of unsettled land to the west of the original settlements. As settlement occurred the frontier moved west and by about 1890 ceased to exist when the remaining large patchs of unsettled country were filled in (The frontier did not simply move west to the Pacific coast; much of the Pacific coast was thickly settled before the closing of the frontier in the interior of the country). The frontier by official definition of the census was a line west of which the population was less than 2 persons per section (one square mile). The frontier was very productive of both adventures and stories. Western movies are generally set on the frontier.
See Wild West.
Further Reading
- Frederick Jackson Turner: "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (1893) (full text online)
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "The Frontier" http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frontier July 24, 2003
