The West (U.S.)
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| Population: | 58,025,381 | |
| Total Area: | 4,834,333 km2 | |
| Largest City: | Los Angeles, California 3,694,820 | |
| Highest Elevation: | Mount McKinley 6,194 m | |
| Lowest Elevation: | Death Valley -86 m | |
| Largest State: | Alaska 1,717,854 km2 | |
| Smallest State: | Hawaii 28,337 km2 | |
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The U.S. West region refers to what are now the westernmost states of the United States.
As defined by the Census Bureau, the Western region of the United States includes 13 states:: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, 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. Colorado, California, Nevada and Utah or regions of those states are sometimes also considered part of the Southwest United States.
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2 Culture 3 Related topics |
Geography
Natural geography
The West is the most geographically diverse region of the country, with several geographical regions running north to south. Along the Pacific Ocean coast lie the Coast Ranges, which are usually not very tall. They collect a large part of the airborne moisture moving in from the ocean. Even in relatively arid 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 intensively 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 meters) 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. These mountain ranges are quite wet, capturing most of the moisture that remains after the Coast Ranges, and creating a rain shadow.
East of these great mountain ranges is a vast arid land, encompassing much of Nevada, Utah and Arizona. The Mojave Desert and Sonora Desert are two of the many deserts found here.
Beyond the deserts lie the Rocky Mountains. In the north, they run immediately east of the Cascade Range, so that the desert region does not reach all the way to 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, are found in central Colorado.
East of the Rocky Mountains begin the Great Plains, a vast grassyy plateau sloping gradually down to the forests near the Mississippi River.
Human geography
Most of these states are growing rapidly. The coastal strip includes several major cities, but the areas between the Rocky Mountains in the east and the Sierra Nevada are still thinly populated. In 2000, Wyoming was the least populous state, with population of 493,782 while California was the most populous, with 33,871,648.
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, lumbering 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.
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 residents of European stock, and Asians from many countries have settled in California and other coastal states in several waves of immigration since the 1800s. Southwestern border states like California, Arizona, and New Mexico all have large Mexican-American populations, and the many Spanish placenames attest to their history as former Mexican territories. The West also contains much of the Native American population in the USA, particularly in the large reservations in the mountain states.
Alaska, the northernmost state in the Union, is a vast land of few, but hardy, people, many of them native, and great stretches of wilderness, protected in national parks and wildlife refuges. Hawaii's location makes it a major gateway between the US and Asia and a center for tourism. Some members of its substantial Native Hawaiian population are resentful of American sovereignty over the island chain.
In the Pacific Coast states, the wide areas filled with small towns, farms, and forests are supplemented by a few big port cities that 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. 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.
The desert and mountain states have relatively low population densities, and developed as ranching and mining areas that 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. Culturally distinctive points include the large Mormon population of Utah, the extravagant casino resort town of Las Vegas, and of course the many Native American tribal reservations.
Western cities' reputation for diversity and tolerance has been marred as of recent years by increasing profiling and segregation, police brutality towards minorities, and racially based riots. Nevertheless, perhaps because so many westerners have moved there from other regions to make a new start, as a rule interpersonal relations are marked by an individual and let live attitude. The western economy is varied. California, for example, is both an agricultural state and a high-technology manufacturing state.
Politically, the West is far from unified. Urban areas, particularly along the Pacific Coast, lean towards the Democratic Party. The rural interior states are more heavily Republican. As the fastest-growing demographic group, Latinos are hotly contested for both parties, but currently lean Democratic. In terms of the electoral college, Washington, Oregon, California, and Hawaii are typically strong blue states (Democratic), Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska are generally red states (Republican), while Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico are hotly contested swing states.
Parts of the Mainland West has been exaggerated as the Wild West.