Frontier
The
Frontier in the
United States and
Canada was the zone of unsettled land to the west of the existing settlements. As settlement occurred the frontier moved west and by about
1890 ceased to exist when the remaining large patches of unsettled land in the interior of the country between the east and the already thickly settled
Pacific coast were filled in. The frontier by official definition of the
census was a line west of which the population was less than 2 persons per section (one
square mile). The frontier was very productive of both adventures and stories.
Western movies are generally set on the frontier.
See Wild West, trans-Appalachia.
Further Reading