West Region
Geography
The mountain west region in the western part of the United States.
United States geography is a story of land and people. A land filled with natural resources from the Rocky Mountains to the sonora desert. The San Francisco Bay to the Mississippi, the Grand Canyon to Niagara Falls. Since 2000 BC, when the Native Americans settled on this continent, people from all over the world have made this land their home. With lush forests sweeping prairies, coastal plains and bustling city, the land is as diverse as the people who live here. North to south, east to west, each region of the United States is a piece of living history shaping the heart and soul of the nation from sea to shining sea.
The mountain west region is located in the western part of the United States. Between the great plains and the Pacific west. The region takes its name from the Rocky Mountains. The jagged peaks of Iraqis, some of the country's tallest mountains are only part of the scenic treasures the region has to offer. Deep canyons, winding rivers, rolling planes, blooming deserts, flesh forests, and spectacular geologic wonders, make this a wild and rugged region about standing natural beauty. The mountain west region contains over a quarter of all the land area in the continental United States. Yet it has the smallest number of people of any region.
Only about 4% of the nation's population lives in the mountain west. 7 states make up the mountain west region, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. The region is completely landlocked by other states, and by the nations of Canada on the north, and Mexico on the south. On the east, the region is bounded by the states of North Dakota. South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. On the west, California, Oregon, and Washington formed the boundary. The Rocky Mountain chain stretches from Canada all the way to Mexico. This region's tallest peak is mount elbert in Colorado. At over 14,000 feet. Two characteristics are shared by every state in the region. They all have relatively dry climates, and they all have tall mountains.
These two factors dry climates and high mountains have profoundly affected the region's economy, settlements, and cultural heritage. The Rocky Mountains are higher than the Appalachian Mountains in the east, and offer a great variety of scenic beauty. This is one of the reasons why tourism and recreation make up a major portion of the mountain west's economy today. The mountains attract skiers in the winter. And in the summer, they attract hikers. Campers, boaters, and fishermen. Yellowstone was the nation's first national park. It's known for its spectacular geysers. Waterfalls, Hot Springs, and canyons. This fantastic hot water geyser erupts faithfully about once every hour. The arid lands of Utah contain many incredible geologic formations.
Numerous visitors come to the mountain west to experience some of the region's wild west heritage. Dude ranches and horseback expeditions give city people a taste of what life was like in this rugged country in the 1800s. The Grand Canyon is one of the world's most spectacular natural wonders and attracts many visitors. He had taken millions of years for the Colorado River to cut this gigantic gorge through the rocks. The Colorado River is the major river of the region. It begins high in the rockies, an empties into the gulf of California, near the Mexican border. Other important rivers are, the snake river, and the upper reaches of the Missouri River, with its tributaries. The continental divide, high in the rockies, marks the point where rivers to the east flow toward the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. While rivers to the west flow to the Pacific Ocean.
Today, tourism is very important to the region's economy. But in the beginning, visitors came here for other reasons. Like gold. Prospecting and mining was the mountain west's principal economic activity in the beginning. The rush to find gold in silver, in the mid to late 1800s, brought prospectors and fortune hunters to the region. Mining town sprang up almost overnight. Towns with names like silver city, goldfield, and silverton existed to supply the miners with food and equipment. Mining was hard and dangerous work. Many states in the region today produced gold and silver. But Nevada is the nation's leading producer of both. This is or inside of the owner that you're looking at, you will find gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, and manganese, and this particular man. And as the miners job to come in, blast the ore out, ship it out to a meal and have to go through a process of extracting all the metals that I just mentioned.
Life was not easy for miners and prospectors in the mountain west. A dry climate, desert, and semi desert areas, hot summers and cold winters, I mountains and steep canyons all made for difficulty and danger. A prospector also had to protect himself from thieves. The famous Hollywood gunfight as we come up almost a symbol of the mountain west. But when the gold and silver ran out, the mining boom towns were quickly deserted as people moved on to search elsewhere. Many deserted towns still stand throughout the region. They're called ghost towns. Today, mining remains very important to the economy of the region. In addition to gold and silver, copper is a valuable product of mining. It is usually dug from huge, open pit mines, like this one in Montana.
The ore is trucked to nearby smelters, where the copper is extracted. Uranium comes from this mine in Utah. Besides mining, the other important part of the economy since the earliest days has been agriculture. But the dry climate and the steep rocky slopes have limited farming to certain crops in certain areas. Wheat is grown in abundance on the flat lands of eastern Colorado and Wyoming, which are really part of the great plains. The flat lands of Idaho produce more potatoes than any other state. Also, sugar beets are grown. Fruits and vegetables are grown in small quantities throughout most of the region. Often with the help of irrigation. Numerous dams have been built, forming large lakes or reservoirs. Hoover Dam on the Colorado River forms Lake mead.
Besides irrigation, the dam generates hydroelectric power for the region. But there is one thing that grows quite well. Without irrigation, almost everywhere. Grass. Abundant natural pastures may cattle and sheep raising the primary farm activity in the mountain west. Montana and Wyoming are among the leading sheep ranching states in the country. Bighorn sheep can roam the steep slopes with ease. Most of the cattle are raised for their meat. Not for dairy products. The cowboys who herded the cattle and rounded them up for market. It left their mark on the culture of the region. The celebrate the cowboys skills and roping and riding, a spectator event known as the rodeo, is very popular. But if prospectors and cowboys have become symbols of the mountain west through novels and movies.
And then so too, as the Native American Indian. These Native Americans still live on the wind river reservation in Wyoming. And keep their heritage alive. There you go. Native Americans, it lived throughout the mountain west region for centuries. The cliff dwellers of Colorado lived here nearly 2000 years ago. These are ruins of an ancient anastasi village in Utah. The anasazi had an advanced civilization with an extensive irrigation system and road network. Indians have lived here for a long time. Number one, for about 12,000 years that we know of. And number two, that they're still here, and they're doing very well, actually. But as white settlers came to take away the land of the Native Americans, battles became inevitable.
The most famous, perhaps, was Custer's last stand in Montana. In 1876, general Custer's cavalry unit attacked an Indian village on the little bighorn river. But the Indians outnumbered the soldiers, and Custer and his men were all killed. We all know about Custer's last stand. His two, but there was also two last stanza to place George Armstrong Custer's command, had their last stand here, and the sewage giant had their last stand as well. They won the battle of little bighorn, but they lost the war. Some of the pioneers who worried about Indian attacks were not settlers in the mountain west region. They were just passing through on the way to the California gold fields, or to Oregon, and Washington. The Oregon Trail was a major rude west for many thousands of pioneers. It passed through Wyoming and Idaho, on the way to the Pacific Northwest. So many wagon wheels passed over this trail that deep ruts were worn into solid rock.
Fort Laramie was built along the trail in Wyoming to resupply the travelers and to offer some protection from Indian attacks. Fort Laramie actually was more or less like a Howard Johnson's of its time in a sense that it provided kind of a stopping off point for civilization is that they needed various rest points and also areas that they could find a base for supplies and such long with trails. Pioneers who traveled through the mountain west region in the last century experienced its treacherous beauty firsthand. The grueling journey could take up to 5 or 6 months. But the travelers got to view some very unusual and scenic natural wonders. Independence rock. Devil's gate. In red canyon, where progress markers on the Oregon Trail. Other travelers encountered even more fantastic geologic formations. Utah's arches national park has numerous arches of stone that have been formed by natural erosion processes.
These strange sheer sided mountains are known as buttes. This one is called tower Butte. Canyons are everywhere in this mountainous region. Rice canyon in Utah is nearly as spectacular as the Grand Canyon. There are many unusual rock formations, like this area, known as the silent city. This arid region of Utah and Nevada is a major geologic feature, the mountain west. Known as the great basin. A basin, as the name suggests, is an area of lowland surrounded by higher land. The great basin lies between the Rocky Mountains on the east and north, and the Sierra Nevada mountains and the cascade range on the west. The great basin contains some of the country's driest, deserts. Such as the great Salt Lake desert, and the Carson sink. It is so dry in the great basin that most rivers running down from the mountains never reach the sea. They simply evaporate in the desert, or empty into a Salt Lake.
One such short river flows into the great Salt Lake. Salt Lake City, Utah, is the only major city in the great basin. It was founded beside the great Salt Lake by Brigham young and his followers in the Mormon church. Today, this tabernacle is the center of the Mormon religion. The largest city in the region is Phoenix, Arizona. It's a manufacturing center, making a variety of products including electronic and aerospace equipment. It's one of the country's fastest growing cities. Largely because of the dry climate. The nearby sonoran desert is a semi desert area that receives just enough rain for plants like cactuses to grow. At certain times of the year, it can bloom with color. The tar saguaro cactus has become a symbol of the sonoran desert. The minute you see this cactus, you know, you're in the southwest, you're in the sonoran desert. Seeming to bloom from another desert further north.
Nevada's neon fringed entertainment cities, like Las Vegas and Reno, attract visitors who enjoy live stage shows and legalized casino gambling. Besides Las Vegas, Reno, Salt Lake City and Phoenix, the principal cities in the region include Tucson, Arizona. Boise, Idaho. Cheyenne, Wyoming. Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the second largest city of the region. Denver, Colorado. Located on the eastern edge of the rockies, where the plane's meet the mountains. Denver has always been a gateway to the mountain west. From any reasons, Denver has long been considered the unofficial capital of the region. Denver is a shipping point for goods produced in the region. Mike lumber. Lumbering, agriculture, mining, and tourism are the region's most important industries.
The mouth and west is the least populated, and most unspoiled region of the country. Its many dams provide both irrigation and electricity to improve life in this hot, dry climate. It's all mountains, provide both beauty and difficulties. And its people are hardworking, rugged individuals. Who enjoy the independence and challenges of living in this beautiful and unique region, the mountain west.