The beginnings of the West date from 1850. Further back the census reports do not present statistics that can be compared for valuable purposes, with present standards, although as early as 1840 there were nine hundred thousand people along the western shore of the Mississippi in Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, and Missouri. These states were long on the firing line of American civilization, and their people subsisted by general farming, or by outfitting ox-train merchandise caravans for Santa Fé and Chihuahua, or by outfitting and trading with pioneer settlers en route to Oregon, or gold seekers flocking to California. Jim Bridger put up in southwestern Wyoming in 1843 the first post for the purpose of trading built west of the Mississippi River, and its establishment marked the beginning of the era of emigration to the Far West. Until a comparatively recent period a goodly portion of the public domain lying west of the Missouri River, and comprising perhaps five hundred thousand square miles, was mapped as the "Great American Desert" and they who penetrated its solitudes and returned unscathed to "civilization" were regarded with that curiosity that pertains to a traveler who has visited an unknown land. With the upbuilding of the country and the spread of knowledge of its capabilities, the title of "Great American Desert" has been swept away, and the colored maps that illustrate the books of the twelfth census, regard the white portion as "unsettled area." This includes a considerable area in every state and territory west of the ninety-ninth degree of longitude. East of that line the only white portion is in southeastern Florida. Progress in the half-century comprehended in this brief review has been remarkable and the present position of the West is strikingly shown in the appended statement, which represent its percentages of the total for the United States for the different items tabulated. In a few instances comparisons are made with 1890 and 1850:
| Per cent. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900. | 1890. | 1860. | |
| Gross area with Alaska | 75.4 | —— | —— |
| Gross area without Alaska | 59.1 | —— | —— |
| Population, gross | 27.5 | 26.6 | 8.6 |
| Urban population | 17.6 | [37]13.1 | 14.1 |
| Number of farms | 35.8 | 32.6 | 8.2 |
| Acres improved | 48.8 | 44.4 | 6.3 |
| Farms, total valuation | 44.1 | [37]36.7 | 6.9 |
| Farm products, value | 43.2 | 37.4 | 20.3 |
| Farm animals | 59.4 | —— | 11.9 |
| Wool, yield | 69.8 | —— | 4.7 |
| Hops, yield | 64.3 | —— | 7.1 |
| Timber, area | 55.4 | —— | —— |
| Lumber product, value | 32.4 | 24.9 | 10.0 |
| Gold, yield | 99.6 | —— | —— |
| Silver, commercial value | 99.8 | —— | —— |
| Coal | 15.1 | —— | —— |
| Railroad mileage | 45.2 | —— | .25 |
| Manufactures, value of product | 16.1 | 14.5 | 3.9 |
| Operatives in factories | 12.2 | 11.9 | 3.1 |
| Imports and exports | 19.0 | —— | —— |
POPULATION.
Aggregate population has increased 957. per cent in fifty years, and foreign population has grown faster than native:
| 1900. | 1890. | 1850. | Per cent of increase 1859-1900. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Americans | 18,375,337 | 14,117,931 | 1,785,462 | 929.0 |
| Foreigners | 2,659,317 | 2,556,478 | 213,942 | 1143.0 |
| Total | 21,034,654 | 16,674,409 | 1,999,404 | 957.0 |
| Per cent American | 87.3 | 84.6 | 89.2 | |
| Per cent foreign | 12.7 | 15.4 | 10.8 |
The proportion of native born, which suffered a sharp decline between 1850 and 1890, because of the influx of foreigners to the mines of California, Montana, and Nevada, and to the farm lands of Minnesota and the Dakotas, is again in the ascendant, the net gain for the decade just ended having been 2.7 per cent. The native population is largest in the group of southwestern states and territories, Arkansas leading with 98.9 per cent; Indian Territory, 98.8 per cent; Louisiana, 96.2 per cent; Oklahoma, 96.1 per cent. Along the Pacific coast it is highest in Oregon, with 84.1 per cent, and lowest in California, with 75.3 per cent, Washington coming in between with 78.5 per cent. North Dakota, with 64.6 per cent, makes the poorest showing. The proportion of natives in the West as a whole in 1900 was 1 per cent above the average for the Union, which was 86.3 per cent. The per cent of foreigners is highest in North Dakota, where it is 35.4, and lowest in Arkansas, where it is 1.1. Minnesota is the only State having to exceed 500,000 foreigners. California and Iowa have over 300,000 each.
The population of the West in 1850 consisted of 1,500,000 farmers and traders in the Louisiana country, that is, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Minnesota; 200,000 odd who had swarmed into Texas after it had been wrested from Mexico, some 60,000 in New Mexico, a group of gold diggers in California, a few thousand Mormons in Utah, and a handful of hardy pioneers who had braved privations and hostile savages on the plains in following the footsteps of Lewis and Clark to the Oregon country. At that time there were not quite 2,000,000 people in all the boundless region west of the Mississippi River. The establishing of direct communication by the overland stage, followed by the building of the transcontinental railroad, stimulated growth, and by 1870 the West had attained considerable importance in population. In 1850 it reported 8.6 per cent of the total population of the Union; 26.6 per cent in 1890, and 27.5 per cent in 1900. In 1890 it had over four times the population of the new Republic in 1790 and not quite twice the population of the nation in 1820. In 1900 its population was somewhat under that of the whole country in 1850, the ratio being about 21 to 23. The appended table shows how the several states and territories of the West have progressed in the matter of population:
| 1850. | 1890. | 1900. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arkansas | 209,897 | 1,128,179 | 1,311,564 |
| California | 92,597 | 1,208,130 | 1,485,053 |
| Colorado | —— | 412,198 | 539,700 |
| Idaho | —— | 84,385 | 161,772 |
| Iowa | 192,214 | 1,911,896 | 2,231,853 |
| Kansas | —— | 1,427,096 | 1,470,495 |
| Louisiana | 517,762 | 1,118,587 | 1,381,625 |
| Minnesota | 6,077 | 1,301,826 | 1,751,394 |
| Missouri | 682,044 | 2,679,184 | 3,106,665 |
| Montana | —— | 132,159 | 343,329 |
| Nebraska | —— | 1,058,910 | 1,066,300 |
| Nevada | —— | 45,761 | 42,335 |
| North Dakota | —— | 182,719 | 319,146 |
| Oregon | 13,294 | 313,767 | 413,536 |
| South Dakota | —— | 328,808 | 401,570 |
| Texas | 212,592 | 2,235,523 | 3,048,710 |
| Utah | 11,380 | 207,905 | 276,749 |
| Washington | —— | 349,390 | 518,103 |
| Wyoming | —— | 60,705 | 92,531 |
| Alaska | —— | 32,052 | 63,592 |
| Arizona | —— | 59,620 | 122,931 |
| Indian Territory | —— | 180,182 | 392,060 |
| New Mexico | 61,547 | 153,593 | 195,310 |
| Oklahoma | —— | 61,834 | 398,331 |
| Total | 1,999,404 | 16,674,409 | 21,034,654 |
Louisiana, with 11.4 inhabitants to the square mile, was the most thickly settled state in the West in 1850. Missouri followed with 9.9; Arkansas with 4, and Iowa with 3.5. The average for the Union was 7.9. That year the little State of Delaware, with 91,532 inhabitants, boasted of one two hundred and sixty-third part of the total population of the Union. Where was Oregon with about one seventh of Delaware's population and Minnesota with less than one half of Oregon's? In 1900 the density of the Union was 25.6 inhabitants per square mile. Three western states, Missouri, with 45.2, Iowa, with 40.2, and Louisiana, with 30.4, exceeded the general average. In the remainder of the states the density ranged from 0.4 in Nevada to 24.7 in Arkansas.
The colored population of the trans-Mississippi region is largely confined to the states in the southern belt, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. In the Pacific states the colored population is principally Chinese and Japanese.