GEOGRAPHY

This site provides a series of pages that attempt to show the progress of westward expansion in a step-by-step fashion. These pages take advantage of the technology behind Google Maps. You will also see links to other aerial photo sites that help to give an overview of the landforms, water courses, and other geographic features lie below. Be sure to follow the links provided in the pop-up windows. Also, please use the features of Google Maps and Flash Earth by zooming and dragging the maps to show the details that interest you.

The American West has a challenging geography. Sections of the West are extremely mountainous, but the region also contains areas such as Death Valley that are below sea level. Much of the West is quite dry while other parts get rain almost daily. Much of the West lies in quite northerly latitudes, with many Canadian cities situated on a line south of many western regions. Along with this geographic variety comes great beauty and sweeping vistas; Montana, for example, is known as "Big Sky Country," and the Grand Canyon takes up large parts of Northern Arizona. As beautiful as it is, the West also can be very inhospitable to travel, farming, and many forms of commerce. That probably explains why much of the West still has such low population density.