Frontier and Amer West

The Western History Association
Making Use of the Frontier and the American West Author(s): Vernon Carstensen Source: The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan., 1982), pp. 4-16 Published by: Western Historical Quarterly, Utah State University on behalf of The Western
History Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/969062 . Accessed: 12/01/2014 08:29

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Western Historical Quarterly, Utah State University and The Western History Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Western Historical Quarterly.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 197.1.130.15 on Sun, 12 Jan 2014 08:29:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Frontier and MakingUse ofthe theAmerican West

VERNONCARSTENSEN
When
I suggestedto our programchairman that I make a few
and the American West, I was being made of the frontier sure I had a so reasonably subject large and vague that therewas little chance I could do morethan pointcheerfully landmarks. to a fewfamiliar For two centuries or longerthe immenseand varied experienceof occuall embracedwithinthe terms frontier and American pyingthiscontinent, has served the of different American West, scholars, writers, purposes and businessmen. artists, entertainers, politicians, delightRay Billington's ful book, Land of Savagery,Land of Promise,tellsus of the many uses Europeans have made of the American westering experience. The termsfrontier and American West are, of course, pleasantly sometimes imprecise. They are sometimes interchangeable, theyonlyoverlap, and sometimes theystrikeout on theirown, dependingon who uses as an area of new land them,forwhat purpose,and when. The frontier moved fromJamestown and Plymouth to the Pacific,but the settlement came into use to West, as a term applied to areas of new settlement, describe the region as one dictionary beyondtheAppalachians.Thereafter, maker has it, the American West, "at any particulartime," embraced "that part of the United States west of the earlier settledregion." In some minds,particularly thosenurtured in theeasternpartof the country, the regionof the Great Plains and beyondseemsto be permanent frontier last Robert for New York the Thus, country. January Lindsey,writing dean explanation of the new "western" president, Times, in offering The metaphor,he wrote,is clared that "the West remains a frontier." inevitable: "A cowboy in full regalia moves to Washingtonfromout of the West, lookinggrimand readyforbattlewiththe gang of lootersthat
Vernon Carstensen, president of the Western History Association, 1980-1981, is professorof historyemeritus,Universityof Washington, Seattle. He delivered this Annual Conference, held in San paper as his presidential address at the Twenty-first Antonio, Texas, October 14-17, 1981.
remarks aboutsomeof theusesthathave been made and are
: ~:-"i ii ! i
........ i~ ii~~i i! :ii: ... ... gist
f .14
iii: ': -ii ii iiii i:iii
. ..
... ...... %,JONii?07
-,00" 4: Wx:: oi::::::: to
let,
::: :?-:;:-:-_-_?-:-:: :i~iA,0,00i~ ~-:?-----~~-~:~-114,:
** 1-
aI?
President Association Nineteenth of theWestern History
VERNON CARSTENSEN
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
January
has taken over the town." Mr. Reagan and his posse, he said, epitomized "many of the realitiesof the modern West and many of the of theold West." myths was one of the great adThe businessof occupyingthis continent venturesof modern times,but it was over much sooner than many exin 1801, he took the oath as president pected. When Thomas Jefferson were shielded fortune. on their his They good congratulated countrymen with fromthe turmoilof Europe and theypossessed"a chosen country, room enough for our descendantsto the thousandthand thousandth oftheRepublicextendedonly When he spoke,theboundaries generation." the He underestimated the to pull of the new lands, a pull Mississippi. new secular religionhe had the no doubt enormously by strengthened and equality, of liberty notions included that helped to shape-a religion have overalso He in belief and progress. may government, representative been have that on immigrants might effect the chilling estimated expected fromthe warningof learned men of France that the New World was a land whereplants,animals,and men degenerated.Immigrants apparentthe them. read if the believe did not mid-century By they warnings ly the of end century Republic had expanded to the Pacific,and beforethe had all but disappeared. thefrontier often like the hasty, tumultuous, The world had neverseen anything Settlerscame in rich continent. chaotic conquest of this vast, incredibly theycame in families, increasingnumbers.They came singly, constantly to claim and use the farmlands, sometimesas membersof communities the minerallands, the water power sites,the the grasslands, the forests, else of real or imaginedvalue. By the early 1840s or anything townsites the plains and mountains caravans of land seekerswere crossing the first in the Willamette in Oregon, and by the end of Valley to make farms The Indians could delay to California. multitudes drew that decade gold thesesettlers Wherever the march. not could but stop encroachment, they to and their make to lands farms plantations, build their enteredthe wild and almost privation, villages and towns,theyfaced dangers,hardships, but they other, to each strangers endlessmanual labor. They were mostly by aided lightly were reasonablyquick to establishand maintain order, never editors and Their politicians,preachers, the federal government. fora new themthat theywere layingthe foundations tiredof reminding civilization. about theNew World Englishand European appetiteforinformation was insatiable,as the makersof books quickly discovered.The famous and the unknowncame to look and to writeabout what theysaw on the Fredericka Bremer eastern seaboard and in regionsof new settlement. to colonize Wisconsinand MinnefromSweden invitedher countrymen
1982
VERNON CARSTENSEN
sota and turnthat regioninto a new Scandinavia, and theytried.George Ruxton discoveredthe mountain men for the gratefuland enthusiastic readersof Blackwood's Magazine. There were scoresand scoresof others who came and who wrote. Americans, too, made books about what was going on. Timothy of Yale, visitedthefrontier of New York and New Dwight,once president the the and characterized 1790s in England pioneershe saw as men who too could not live in a regularsociety."They are too idle, too talkative, or to either too and too shiftless property passionate, prodigal acquire was sufficiently character."He rejoiced that the vast westernwilderness wherethey alluringto "draw themaway fromthe land of theirnativity," those would only cause troubleif theyhad stayed. In striking contrast, viewed the and who wrote the numeroussettlers' gazetteers guidebooks ofcivilization, self-reliant thepioneers as a stalwart, worthy people,carriers of the great opportunities the new lands offered. American novelistto exploit James Fenimore Cooper was the first he publishedThe Pioneers, In success. 1823 the frontier with dramatic Tales. of the Leatherstocking the first pirated Englishpublishers promptly the work,and it was also translatedinto the major European languages. editionsby 1927. Cooper's success enIn Russia therewere thirty-two to make use of the frontier. WashingtonIrving couraged other writers toured the prairiesin the 1830s and publishedan account of his experiences. He later wrote about Astoria and Captain Bonneville.A decade later Francis Parkmanspenta summeron the Oregon Trail. His account The of his adventures, publishedin 1849, enjoyed enduringpopularity. circles in of a source became of California literary delight miningcamps in Boston and London when Bret Harte publishedThe Luck of Roaring therecame a floodof good books, Camp and Other Sketches.Thereafter, material. Some writers that used frontier both fictionand nonfiction, wrote about what they had seen; othersbased their work on careful research. and ErastusBeadle, printer In the last half of the nineteenth century served to be a new market found associates various his and publisher, by the dime novel. In 1860 Beadle published Malaeska: The Indian even thoughit was a reprint Wife of a WhiteHunter,and it sold briskly, This was followed by before. first of a book published twentyyears led him to hire a Success Frontier. the the Seth Jones, or Captive of with almostall that dealt thrillers western to numberof writers produce and excitement or dangers of life on the imagined aspects of the real mountain about There were wild tales traders, frontier. Indians,trappers, and soldiers. By the rafters, backwoodsmen, gold hunters, men, explorers, 1880s cowboysand cattle thievesbegan to take theirplace among other
January
frontier typesin the popular novelsand the pulp magazinesof the early twentieth century. has told us in richdetail,scoresof European Meanwhile,as Billington Karl May bethrillers. writers turned out an endlessstreamof frontier and Mayne Reid came, and stillremains,a householdname in Germany, in England saw his books appear as dime novels in America, while at in Russia. Indeed, thesame timetheyfounda vastand enduring following Anton Chekhov has a short storyabout two Russian schoolboyswho, under the spell of Mayne Reid, plan to walk acrossSiberia on theirway where theywill fighttigersand savages, find to the California frontier drink and and gin. ivory, gold who sought There were many othersduringthe nineteenth century There were artistsand and found ways of making use of the frontier. who collected founda readysale, exhibitors whose pictures photographers artifacts and animals forshow in the East and in Europe, and entertainers,like BuffaloBill Cody, who appeared in "The Scouts of the Prairie" in 1872. The show, writtenby Ned Buntline,drew large audiences in Chicago,New York,and Boston. There were also collectorsof recordsof the westering experience. and with no For example, Lyman C. Draper, while still in his twenties recordsand recolto gathering himself sure means of support,committed afterthe Revolution. lections of pioneer life in the border settlements State HistoricalSociety.His of theWisconsin In 1854 he became secretary of forthe greathistorical library laid the foundation collections extensive the of user the society.Hubert H. Bancroftwas a somewhat different Bancroft and bookseller, began collectA San Francisco printer frontier. undertook ing Californiarecordsand books in the late 1850s and then to assemble the documents and other records needed to produce his of the PacificCoast states-which, you may recall,includesTexas. history He organized a staffto writethe accountshe publishedunder his own volume name. By the end of the 1880s he had published a thirty-nine nearly of a made had he W. to profit Caughey, set, and according John Unithe to collection his he sold dollars. great a half-million Ultimately, in of California Berkeley. versity Professional,that is to say, academic, historianswere reasonably and investias a subject forinstruction quick to make use of the frontier the in room American little college curfound gation. Historyin general formed was AHA the When century. riculumuntil the late nineteenth first the meeting attended who in 1884, onlynine of the forty-one persons But a brighter day was coming, as colleges of history. were professors increased and the professional and universities multiplied,enrollments tookshape. ofhistorians training
1982
VERNON CARSTENSEN
In 1888 JamesBrycepublishedhis greatbook, The AmericanCom"WesternAmerica," he wrote,"is one of the mostinteresting nmonwealth. subjectsthe modernworld has seen. There has been nothingin the past its growth,and probablytherewill be nothingin the future resembling .... The West is the most American part of America; that is to say, the part where those featureswhich most distinguish America come out in the strongest relief."Five years later FrederickJacksonTurner read his famous paper. All of us recognizethese words. "Up to our own day Americanhistory has been in a large degreethe history of the colonization of the Great West." Turner offereda hypothesis more attractivethan in thegrowth thenavailable. The place of thefrontier anything experience of the nation providedone of the dominating themesof Americanhistorical studies forthenexthalfcentury. The nineteenth century produced manyfrontier typesthat promised to assume a permanentheroic characterto serveliterary and otherpurincluded warled that and Crockett a Daniel Boone Davy parade poses. mountain and Indian men, missionaries, white,pathfinders, riors,both and even a few outlaws and politicians.During the last prospectors, decades of the centurythe cowboy emerged in the dime novels, but initiallyhe was somethingof a roughneck.A few articleson cowboys journals such as Harper's Magazine and Century. appeared in literary in won full literary And then,in 1902, the cowboy finally respectability who had The Virginian,a book that was writtenby a Harvard man majored in music. The book was praised by anotherHarvard man who of theseUnited States.This event was hailed as the first cowboypresident is wortha brief examination. Theodore Roosevelt,a friendof Owen Wister,was graduated from Harvard in 1880. With no career in mind, he launched several. He and in 1882 got elected to the New York enteredpoliticsas a refornner his to lifelongwork of city,state, and national reform. legislature begin in cattleranchingin the Dakota BadHe investedsome of his patrimony as cowboy,rancher, but his experience lands. Ranchingpaid no dividends, and big game hunterin the West provided materialfor his burgeoning career as journalist.In 1885 his book Hunting Trips of a Ranchman appeared, and three years later, Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail. Although he left ranching,he continued to be identifiedas cowboy, He also foundtimeto launch his career rancher,and adopted westerner. In 1882 he publishedhis first as historian. book, The Naval War of 1812, two volumesof The Winningof the Westappeared. and in 1889 the first President McKinley broughthim to Washington to serve as assistant
of the navy,but whenthe war withSpain began,he teamed secretary

up with Leonard Wood to organize a volunteercavalry regimentthat
10
January
was promptly hailed as theRough Riders,or better Roosevelt's still, Rough for in the context. Riders. You can substitute Riders cowboys Rough Although originallylimited to under eight hundred, this mightyarmy of, to use Roosevelt'swords,"the wild grew to a thousand and consisted ridersand riflemen fromthe Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains." from New Mexico, Arizona,Oklahoma, They wereto have been recruited but youngmen fromHarvard, Yale, and Princeton and Indian Territory, soughtto join and some were admitted.Althoughthe Rough Riders did not ride theirhorsesinto battle,and theyhad help in winningthe war in Cuba, many personsseemed not to notice. Roosevelt became a national hero,and his enormouspopularity helped him win the nomination He for governorof New York. campaigned with an escort of Rough as McKinley's A Ridersand won theelection. yearlaterhe was nominated be a prorather he would that runningmate despitehis privateprotest than vice-president. fessorof history Then, in September1901, following of McKinley, "that damned cowboy," as Mark Hanna the assassination called him, became president. Meanwhile, Owen Wister,a Philadelphianwho had switchedfrom was in Wyoming, and who had spentsummers music to law and writing The Virginian,a book in which he hoped to rehard at work finishing the capture the West that had been. In May 1902 the book burstupon world. It was dedicated to Roosevelt and the dedicationsuggestedthat had had a hand in shapingthe story."Some of thesepages the president because you have seen, some you have praised,one stands new written to leave remindyou of their you blamed it; and all, my dear critic,beg admiration." author'schangeless Wister's view of the cowboy and the West would have startled of cowboysin a Medicine Bow TimothyDwight. Listento his description this and I instantly vision into rose saloons preferred saloon. "City my of vice, less but it death More saw, undoubtedly Rocky Mountain place. than did its New York equivalents.And death is a thingmuch cleaner upon these than vice. Moreover,it was by no means vice that was written wild manly faces .... Daring, laughter,endurance-these were what I day of my saw on the countenancesof the cowboys.And this veryfirst them, about For me. a with date marks of them something knowledge it, never I have and smote forgotten nor and the idea of them, my heart, ever shall, as long as I live. In theirfleshour natural passions ran tuand often multuous; but oftenin theirspiritsat hidden a true nobility, took a heroicstature."Wister beneathits unexpectedshiningtheirfigures oftheAmericanmoralithevitaland durableingredients together brought who would ty play: a westernlandscape, the cowboyhero, wrong-doers
1982
VERNON CARSTENSEN
11
have to be destroyedviolentlyto assure the establishment of law and order in the new land. RooseveltwroteWisterthat he was delightedwith the book. Henry The book was enthusiastically James approved, with some reservations. in the AtlanticMonthlycame veryclose to saying received.The reviewer that this was a thinking man's western. The book went throughfifteen first the and it would retainits popularity over the reprints during year, a a a number as of serials on and radio TV. and book, play, years movies, Wister'ssuccess called fortha mighty flood of western, cowmostly boy books that found an apparentlyinsatiable marketwhile carrying and farther readersfarther away fromthe West that reallywas. Of the scores of successfulwriters, I want to mentiononly three: Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, and Kjell Hallbing. Each in his own way managed to finda mass market. but wanted to be a writer. Ohio-bornZane Greytrainedas a dentist Aftera long apprenticeship duringwhich he wroteand wroteand never his claim he never finished managed to sell very much-his detractors apprenticeship-he visitedArizona and turned to writingwesterns.In 1912 he published Riders of the Purple Sage-a book that would sell he turnedout a constantstreamof over two millioncopies. Thereafter, almostall best-sellers. When he died in 1939, he had published westerns, with anotherthirty in manusome sixtybooks, most of them westerns, the had been transHis works, critics, largely by although ignored script. lated into the major European languages. The total number of copies publishedvaries somewhataccording to whose reportyou read, but the essay by EverettCarter in the Dictionaryof AmericanBiographystates million had been sold in the United that by 1958 nearly twenty-eight Grosssales by the end of the 1950s another four million abroad. States, had passed the thirty-six milliondollar mark-more than twice what the U.S. had paid for Louisiana. but no one appeared to challengehis Grey had many competitors, dominationof the marketuntilthe 1970s when Louis L'Amour surpassed him. Born in NorthDakota, L'Amour, a highschool dropout,claimed to have followeda large numberof occupations-farm laborer,longshoresailorand mineramongthem-before he turnedto writman, lumberjack, In 1977 the London Times LiterarySupplementtook saring westerns. million donic note of the workof thisman whosebookshad sold overfifty L'Amour million ut 7.8 Books Bantam In 1979 alone, shipped copies. intotenforeign books,and he had been translated languages.A yearlater of which books in print, it was reported that he had seventy-six sixty-five had each sold a millionor more copies. To celebrate 100 millioncopies in print,Bantam arranged autographingparties at truck stops in the
12
January
Southwestbecause truckdriverswere his most ardent followers. At the end of the year, Time hailed him as "the Homer of the Oater" and claimed he was the "most famous obscure author in America." "Truck drivers,"Time declared, "pass up centerfold magazines at diesel stops to buy a copy of his latestpaperback." Many Europeans,such as Karl May and Mayne Reid, made profitable use of the pioneer West, but I want to call your attentionto the astonishing Kjell Hallbing. A Norwegian bank clerk, Hallbing wrote in his westerns got his first publishedunder the name spare time,finally in Scandinavia. and quicklyattainedgreatpopularity of Louis Masterson, a he turnedout large number writersof westerns, Like othersuccessful books in printin of books in a short time. By 1972 he had sixty-one was western Norway and over 1.5 millionhad been sold. In 1970 his first sixteen later and two years into Englishfora London publisher translated were in print.They have been marketedin England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. So far,the U.S. has been spared. There was an even larger audience waitingto be discoveredand to look and listenratherthan to read. served,an audience that preferred BuffaloBill had led the way in the traditionof P. T. Barnum with his Wild West show, launched in the 1880s. He played beforeaudiences in thousandand includedQueen Victoria.Then England that reached forty the new technology, including the motion picture camera, radio and to reach new and distant television, provided an unlimitedopportunity or a movie to make tried had two, but he failed. Early audiences. Cody launched. was movie the western successfully in the twentieth century the and involves The storyruns fromWilliam S. Hart to John Wayne withhardlyany industry dollar,earth-spanning growthof a multi-million western. the American from to as remote so world the of escape part new types, or invent including to rediscover Radio providedtheopportunity the gates TV then and Lone the and opened Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy the were and outlaws principalfare,but still wider. Cowboys, Indians, Walt Disney got into the act with Davy Crockett.That TV series was enormously popular in the United States,and when exportedto England Crockettexcited such a demand for coonskin caps as to threatenthe domestic cat population. At the end of the 1950s it was claimed that and theexportof Gunsmoke eightof the top ten TV showswerewesterns, made it possiblefor a quarter of the populationof the world to view it. were much denigratedin many quarters,established Althoughwesterns Such actors, both American and foreign,willinglyappeared in them. as Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Marlene Dietrich,and foreigners Liv Ullman showed up a time or two to help conquer the West.
1982
VERNON CARSTENSEN
13
Afterthe Second World War imitators. Naturallytherewere foreign came thespaghetti in greatnumbers. westerns Some came fromSpain and a few otherparts of the world. It had long been claimed that therewas no way a producercould lose moneyon a cowboyor western filmor TV has managed to disprove United Artists that ancient show,but apparently truth withthe twice-released, $45-million picturecalled "Heaven's Gate," somethingvaguely related to the JohnsonCounty War and advertised as a "seriouswestern."In spite of a muddled storyline, some dramatic blood in needlessbrutality, western horses, cattle,much shooting, scenery, box office. and this movie was disaster at a the color, nudity living rape, Could it be that Hollywood has at last managed to produce a western so bad and so expensiveas not to make a profit and thus bring movie westernsto an end? But all is not lost. Warner Brothersrecentlyreon theplanet called "Outland," in whichthe miningfrontier leased a film to It will be horses and cowboys hard the bring setting. Jupiterprovides but special effects into the space frontier, expertsmay manage. Children growingup almost anywhere-in America, Europe, Asia, listenedto radio and watched movies and TV, Africa-read westerns, and played at being cowboys,Indians, and outlaws.Nobody knowshow and the heroic cowboy many carried the pictureof heroic frontiersmen famous their adult into Nabokov, Hitler,and men,including years.Many to Karl Einstein,confessed reading May, Mayne Reid, and Zane Grey, that Joseph moviesand TV. Kruschevremembered western or following Stalin liked westernand cowboy movies for his evening entertainment, and although he always denounced theirideological content,he always of commerce is reportedto ordered more. Only recentlythe secretary to get more lifeinto theirgovhave instructed personsin his department betweenZane Grey and Ernest forsomething ernmentprose by striving Hemingway. of state, explained to an In 1972 Henry Kissinger,then secretary Italian newspaperwomanhis image of himself."The main point stems fromthe fact," he said, "that I've always acted alone. Americansadmire Americansadmirethe cowboyleading the caravan alone that enormously. a villageor cityalone on his horse. astridehis horse,the cowboyentering Without even a pistol,maybe, because he doesn't go in for shooting. He acts, that's all: at the right spot at the righttime.A Wild West tale, adif you like." But the cowboy,it should be noted, is not universally accused the United mired. In August of 1981 the Libyan government States of aggression"based on the law of the gun and on cowboy logic, which is the onlylanguage the U.S. understands." and a half ago Alexis de Toqueville observedthat "AmerA century formassoand all dispositions icans of all ages, all conditions, constantly
14
January
ciations.They have not only commercialand manufacturing companies, ofa thousandotherkinds-religious, in whichall takepart,but associations enormousor diminutive." or restricted, moral, serious,futile,extensive, Owners of That is still true about many who make use of the frontier. ashave formed rodeo entertainers of and dude ranches, managers rodeos, or build six-shooters wire and those who collect barbed well as as sociations, sod houses forshow. The practicehas been carriedabroad, whereit has appeared in scoresof clubs and societieswhose membersmeet regularly to practiceor parade what theybelieveto be frontier, Indian, or cowboy at least sixtywere crafts.In 1973 The German Tribune reportedthere threeWild West clubs thenoperatingin West Germanywitha memberthousand.Membersmet fromtimeto timeto pretendthey ship of fifteen were trappers,frontier soldiers,Indians, or cowboys. Garments,tools, all supposed to be true to the usages of the were and conduct weapons, has describeda numberof othersuch Americanfrontier. Billington Ray associations in Europe. Of similar organizationsin this country,the Launched National Muzzle-Loading RifleAssociationdeservesattention. of nearlytwenty-five thousand,the in 1933, now claiminga membership association attractedmore than two thousand to the annual shoot at buckskin Friendship,Ohio, last May. At the shoots the memberswear to skills the alive and black and use required use the theykeep powder, rifle. muzzle-loading thatmake use of thefrontier associations of voluntary No brieflisting a salute to those that without conclude should West and the American These include the the of frontier. the with seek to deal seriously history born in Chicago in 1944 and now claimingnearlya hundred Westerners, corrals in cities across the countryand abroad, and of course, our own Western HistoryAssociation,now enteringits third decade. Manufacturersand merchantshave also found many ways to use and the AmericanWest. Here I have time the real or imaginedfrontier to mentiononlytheirfavorite figure-the heroiccowboy.He has become to the is a testament a kind of icon whose presencein an advertisement cigarette, whether is beingoffered, pickup truck, high qualityof whatever themanufacture is more Even men's conspicuous even or perfume. liquor, and hugebuckles.Russia and sale ofcowboygear--hats,boots,pants,belts, jeans are eagerlysoughtby the young. has no dude ranches,but western The contestfor the businessof supplyingcowboy gear is serious. Last the Februarya long article appeared in the New York Times tellingof share a of Wrangler jeans to capture larger campaignby themanufacturer the values of the that reflected a wanted "We campaign of the market. They sought an of head the explained. marketing American Frontier," of risk." element witha little independent, image thatwas "honest,robust,
1982
VERNON CARSTENSEN
15
A sellerof cowboy hats solemnly statedthat the cowboy hat has become "part of America's dress code. It's the only true American look. It's patriotism." Apparentlyhe knew what he was talkingabout. Last May a Texan at Annapolis wrote to his senatorto complain that ordershad been circulatedin the academy declaringthat cowboygarb was inapproand an There was a promptprotest priateleisure attirefor midshipmen. and The had order been misread. "torn, dirty" Only frayed, explanation. cowboy gear was frownedupon. Clean cowboy hats and boots are as admiralsas forthe commander-in-chief acceptableleisurewear forfuture in the WhiteHouse. We Americanslike the AmericanWest withitscowboysand cowboy of all kinds,even thoughtheyno longer gear, but we also love frontiers divide settledfromunsettled Chevron,we are told, was born on country. the frontier of a new journal devoted and neverleftit. The announcement to of frontiers of new techto high technology abreast "all promises keep from There frontiers in science, to robotics. are nology," genetic engineering Wherever we go thereare new education,even in cookery. space, religion, frontiers. They are beckoning,challengingand promising.In January 1979 Science publishedan articleentitled"Information:The Ultimate Frontier." To cross the old frontier meant risk,danger, and hardship. That now seems changed. To cross any of the new frontiers promises better,and withoutrisk. new, something something Politicians have made use of the term. F.D.R. declared in 1932 had passed. that the nation needed a New Deal because the old frontier in 1960, When JohnF. Kennedylaunchedhis campaignforthepresidency he discoveredthat America stood on a New as many of us remember, Frontier. He warned that "the times demand invention,innovation, imaginationand decision," and he invited each citizen "to be a new The and enjoy the "freshair of progress." pioneer on that new frontier" that accompanied Kennedy's New Frontierobscured, extensivepublicity to the old frontier. He I am afraid, PresidentEisenhower'sattachment had grown up in Abilene, Kansas, and was an avid reader of western novels.When General Motors dedicated a new researchcenterin Detroit in 1956, Eisenhowerdeclared that the centerwould be "a new adventure for frontiersmen." General Motors, he said, "was foundedby frontierswith what we had and were determen, people who were not satisfied and better and in greater minedto make it possibleformen to travelfaster of frontiers and each of America is a history .... The history comfort frontier has been a challengeto Americansto dare more,to do more,and go forwardfasterand on a broader front." I suppose thereis no way I can draw a conclusionfromthesescattered remarks about how travelers,writers,entertainers, businessmen,
16
January
and politicians have made use of what theycall the frontier, theAmerican West. It has been obvious fora long timethat our real or imaginedpast and has actuallyinfluas a pioneeringpeople has excited great interest enced behaviorhere and abroad. It may be that Zane Grey will provide a model to change, perhapseven improvegovernment prose; and it may thata clean cowboyhat and be, in thisday of images and image-making, election. clean boots helped turnthe tide in the last presidential

Frontier and Amer West

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Frontier and Amer West

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Western History Association

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/969062 . Accessed: 12/01/2014 08:29

Frontier and MakingUse ofthe theAmerican West

I suggestedto our programchairman that I make a few

remarks aboutsomeof theusesthathave been made and are

........ i~ ii~~i i! :ii: ... ... gist

iii: ': -ii ii iiii i:iii

... ...... %,JONii?07

-,00" 4: Wx:: oi::::::: to

::: :?-:;:-:-_-_?-:-:: :i~iA,0,00i~ ~-:?-----~~-~:~-114,:

THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

of the navy,but whenthe war withSpain began,he teamed secretary

THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

You might also like