the VVest

‘ovtlavv-Colvmbia’


Geographic Boundaries

Starting at the Rio-Grande (because it serves as the historical boundary between Mexico and the United States, in spite of its being east of the Rockies) in the south and running west (north of the Gulf of California) to the Pacific lies the West’s southern boundary. The Pacific Coastline itself serves as the West’s western boundary. The Rockies serve as its eastern boundary. The northern boundary isn’t quite as clear. That’s because the British Columbian cultures and landscapes are so similar to our own. If there wasn’t a checkpoint at the U.S.-Canada border, you’d never know you had left (at least until you pulled-up at a gas station to fill-up by the liter). And somewhere on the other side of western Canada waits Alaska. But for the sake of argument, the northern border rests roughly at the north-end of the Cascades.
The western boundary is fairly obvious. The Pacific is clearly where the West ends. The Eastern boundary is nearly as compelling. The Rockies divide the continent almost as effectively as the oceans limit it. The northern and southern boundaries are really just political borders. There are some well deserved grudges along the southern border though. By the time the Colorado River has reached the Gulf of California it has been drained. In an already arid environment, water-use like that condemns the residents of the lower Colorado to drought. The landscape itself doesn’t change much at the West’s southern boundary, but you’d still know you had left the states.
‘Contiguous’ might be the term to describe the West. Even the mountain ranges west of the Rockies seem to add to (rather than obstruct) its dominion. The political boundaries are the only thing to really interrupt Baja’s realm. Otherwise, the West is an unbroken range of unforgiving turf and “ecologically fragile mountain and desert habitats.” (McIlwraith/Muller - 282) North of the Rio Grande we are lucky to have so much latitude. As the Rockies make their way south to Mexico City they divide Mexico into narrow halves. Canada has even more latitude than we do in the states. Alaska may be the farthest west point on the continent but the contiguous span from Baja Canada to Labrador rivals only China and Russia for its continental span. So after the development of the United States’ eastern economies, the better part of Columbian geography commonly remains somewhat wild by nature. ‘Unbroken’, in spite of any of its political-boundaries.


Characteristics

Somewhere between British Columbia and Baja California is the United States’ frontier-West. It’s not much of a frontier anymore, but its residents still live like unbroken cowboys. They are modern cowboys, with ‘sport-utes’ and PDAs. They range from the Baja-coastline to the continental-divide. On the other side of the Rockies, colonial traditions prevail. I think the Rockies might be the most significant influence in distinguishing colonial Labrador from renegade Baja. To the west of the Rockies, epic expanses of the continent give its inhabitants a solitary life-style. To the east all the major markets are connected. There are only a handful of major markets in the West and they act like an oasis for the scenic wastelands surrounding them. Some might argue that it’s the scenery that coerces the West’s residents into acting like cowboys. But there’s some practicality in it too.
More than anywhere else in the U.S., it is the West that is undeveloped. “Compared with the eastern United States, and even with much of the Great Plains, one of the most striking features of the Far West today is its vast extent of uncultivated open land.” (277) There are a few dedicated agricultural regions. California’s Central Valley and Oregon’s Willamette Valley are among them. The Palouse is another. Montana and Wyoming are suitable for ranching but not so much for crops. And the Great Basin is almost uninhabitable altogether, except for the mineral deposits that keep industry there. The port-cities of the West Coast are the most livable cities in the West. Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle have favorable climates and connections to other ports and the railroad lines that still serve them.
The result of all the prevailing isolation in the West is modern ‘cowboy culture’. Cowboys come in all races here, unlike Texas where cowboy-culture is still dominated by rednecks. The only other segment among the West’s locals is really the surfer, but that doesn’t necessarily exclude anyone from being a cowboy. I guess I admire the resourcefulness in the cowboy way. Sometimes it takes a cowboy. And the West is one of those times.


The Difference Between the West and the Frontier

The West was the last of the United States’ continental frontier, but the West and ‘the frontier’ were never completely synonymous. The remnants of the frontier can be found in the West’s interior. The prime real-estate along the coastline has long since been developed. But to the east of the Sierras and Cascades, what is left of the frontier continues to fight-off civilization. The reason the West remained a frontier was coincidental. If the Russians had been more interested in establishing a colony here it might have been another story.
In fact, the west-coast’s most developed ports predate the United States’ presence there. It was nice of us to move-in on the Spanish missions like we owned the place, I suppose. Immigrants from the east arrived in coastal California “where an urban network was already in place.” (273) Three of old Mexico’s better harbors are now U.S. territory. Maybe the frontier was too hard for some early pioneers. Instead of build new cities in the wilderness they took-over someone else’s. That is one of the few examples of where the West wasn’t a frontier. Otherwise, everything west of the Rockies was pretty unsettled to all but native tribes.
The fact that the West was still a frontier by the time European settlers arrived is due to Columbia’s native tribes’ conservation. Today the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Department of the Interior keep the West’s wilderness preserved. Its rugged terrain prevents development too. I guess Columbia has a way of conserving its own sovereignty. That’s really what a frontier is. A place where nature still rules.