CHAPTER XX
THE UNITED STATES—THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS AND TERRITORIAL POSSESSIONS
The western part of the United States consists of a succession of high mountain-ranges extending nearly north and south. The two highest ranges, each about two miles high, enclose a basin-shaped plateau about one mile high. This basin is commonly called the "plateau region." The rim ranges are broken in a few places by passes that the transcontinental railways thread. West of the Sierra Nevada ranges are the fertile Pacific coast lowlands.
The Plateau Region.—This region is generally arid, but on the higher plateaus there is sufficient rainfall to produce a considerable forestry and grazing. The general conditions of rainfall and topography forbid any great development of agriculture. Farming is confined to the river-flood-plains, the parks, and the old lake beds and margins.
A considerable area, estimated at more than two million acres, may be made productive by irrigation, and the United States Government is undertaking the construction of an elaborate and extensive system of reservoirs for the impounding of stream and storm waters now running to waste. The irrigated lands of this region, when their products are accessible to markets, are very valuable. The river-bottom lands of New Mexico, and the old margins of Great Salt Lake in Utah are examples. They produce abundantly, and a single acre often yields as much as four or five acres in regions of plentiful rainfall.
Not much of the crop of this region, the fruit and wool excepted, leaves the vicinity in which it is grown, on account of the expense of transportation. In the matter of the transportation of their commodities, the dwellers of the western highland are doubly handicapped. The building of railways is enormously expensive, and in a region of sparse population there is comparatively little local freight to be hauled. The difficulties of developing such a region from a commercial stand-point, therefore, are very great.
Mining is the chief industry of this section, and silver, gold, and copper are its most important products. Since the discovery of precious metals in the United States, this region has produced gold and silver bullion to the value of about four billion dollars. This sum is about one-half the value of the railways of the country,[55] and from 1865 to 1880 a large part of the capital invested in railway building represents the gold and silver of these mines. In the last twenty years of the past century they produced an average of about one hundred and twenty-five million dollars per year, and this average is constantly increasing.
Coal-measures extend along the eastern escarpment of the Rocky Mountains, and these are destined at no remote day to create a centre of steel and other manufactures. Several of the railways operate coal-mines in Colorado and Wyoming for the fuel required. A limited supply of steel is also made, the industry being protected by the great distance from the Eastern smelteries.