The United States was colonized East to West as more and more European settlers arrived.
As you cross the Mississippi river the quality and amount of good farming land starts to drop off which changed how the land further West was settled. From the 1600s to early 1900s it was considered the *Frontier* or *Wild West*.
This unsettled territory was full of wild animals, had virtually no law enforcement or civilization, no paved roads, few train tracks, and was the home of Native American Indians.
Much of it was desert, the Rocky mountains, and foothills
The exception was California and the West coast which was being settled at a much faster rate due to having access to the ocean.
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