the West

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Geography & Travel

the West

region, United States

Also known as: Far West

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Apr 7, 2024 • Article History

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the West, region, western U.S., mostly west of the Great Plains and including, by federal government definition, Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Virtually every part of the United States except the Eastern Seaboard has been “the West” at some point in American history, linked in popular imagination with the last frontier of American settlement. But especially it is that vast stretch of plains, mountains, and deserts west of the Mississippi that has loomed so large in American folklore, a region of cowboys, Indians, covered wagons, outlaws, prospectors, and a whole society ...(100 of 629 words)

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