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Mark Twain stated that, when in California,
he was not in the West - he was "west of the West." Sorry, Mr.
Clemens, you were way wrong. Such a perspective springs from the two century-old,
east coast skew that calls places like Ohio and Illinois the "Midwest."
Nothing against those places, but they aren't in the true 'West' at all,
let alone the middle of it. Nature, not humanity, has drawn the line which
separates North America's West from its East. This line runs from the western
shores of Lake Winnipeg to the southern reaches of the Rio Grande, bisecting
the plains states from North Dakota to Texas. Geomorphology, climate, and
the biota, have teamed to set this line between the 98th and 100th meridians.
The western boundary of 'the West' must certainly be the Pacific Ocean,
and by 1849 the West's most dominant region had become - California. Humanity
has, of course, drawn a line to rend the days and the hemispheres, and this
"date line" bends toward the Asian continent to scrape the western
reaches of both Alaska and Hawai'i, the lands truly "west of the West."
Go any further west and you are decidedly in The East. Here, in a sense,
'East meets West'.
Below are some photos from our fortunate days "west of the West." |
