Name ___________________________________________
Date _____
Per. _____
Myths of the Frontier
Richard A. Bartlett
The story of the settling of the frontier wilderness has been mythologized as much as the
early explorations of this continent. Indeed, there is a good deal of romance in the saga of
westward migration. The unknowns were many, the dangers great, and the results dramatic. On
the other hand, as historian Richard Bartlett points out in this selection, there is a tendency to
exaggerate both the mysteriousness and the “trackless-ness” of the American continent. In this
selection, he is writing about what was known of the West in 1776. Within three decades, the
government-supported explorations of Lewis and Clark and of Zebulon Pike vastly expanded
popular knowledge of the great wilderness.
Three myths have hindered the accurate portrayal of the sweep across the continent, and
they should be destroyed. They are: (1) the myth of the unknown continent; (2) the myth of the
trackless wilderness; (3) the myth of the Indian invincibility.
The myth has somehow arisen that our eighteenth-century ancestors knew next to nothing
about the North American land mass. They knew that somewhere far, far to the West, so the
story goes, the land ended at the “south Sea” (as they called the Pacific), but no one had any
inkling of what lay in between. If this ignorance of the continent really existed, then the
American achievement in pushing towards the setting sun becomes all the greater, much more
romantic, and even bolder venture than it actually was.
This impression is, however, completely inaccurate. In fact, if all the accumulated
knowledge of the English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Russians concerning North America as
of 1776 could be gathered, there would be few general geographical facts about the continent
that were not known by the Europeans.
The lobbying activities of land speculators (people hoping to buy cheap land and sell it
for a profit later) and fur traders prevented the British government from ignoring the western
country, at least to the Mississippi, for long. There were conflicting claims, some of them “sea
to sea,” made by the several colonies. Then there was the “Indian Menace”, unsuccessfully dealt
with by the Proclamation of 1763. Time and western activity had worked against the British, and
their system of control of trade and settlement, based upon the Proclamation Line, collapsed.
This was due, however, not to a lack of understanding of the geography so much as a failure to
comprehend the forces that were building up pressure for westward advance.
These forces were all set in motion by the permanent inhabitants of the developing
colonial nation in North America. As of 1776 there were two and a half million white
Americans and possibly three-fourths of a million black slaves in the thirteen states. Although
the whites included Scotch-Irish, Germans, French Huguenots, and small representations of
Dutch, Irish, and other European nationalities, the English language, English common law, and
an English cultural context generally prevailed. Most of these people lived between seaside and
fifty miles inland, although there were western extensions south of the Potomac River, along the
wide coastal plain and then into the upland piedmont (the plateau between the Appalachian
Mountains and the coast), as much as 200 miles into the interior. Some of the easternmost
mountain valleys, such as Virginia’s Shenandoah, had also been settled. But, for the most part,
the great Appalachian Mountain Range, even with its fertile valleys, remained a barrier to
western settlement. Beyond the mountains, or on their western fringes, the frontier settlements
began. There was usually an actual geographical gap between the settled country and the
country, in some places extending 200 miles east to west, a wild span of mountains, valleys, and
thick forests.
In a general way, we may say that Americans knew the main elements of its geography as
far west as the “father of waters” –the Mississippi River. They knew the Appalachians, and they
knew of the prairies of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. The average man would have known
next to nothing of the lands beyond that great river, but educated persons such as Thomas
Jefferson certainly possessed some knowledge of the rest of the continent –of Mexico and Texas
and the far Pacific. The Americans knew in a practical way much more than just the
geographical elements of the country west to the Mississippi. They were aware that most of the
land was thickly forested with deciduous trees, that it was teeming with game, and that it was
sparsely populated by Indians. And yet, the flora and fauna of this vast region were, after all, no
more than a richer, more primitive, and far more extensive version of the deciduous forests of
Western Europe and the British Isles. Interspersed through these forested lands were glades and
meadows, lakes and streams. A forest in which deer and bison could graze was something less
than an impenetrable jungle.
Another false assumption is the myth of the trackless wilderness. Even the densest
woods, with more than 300 different varieties of trees, enormous vines, and thick undergrowth,
were traversed by a maze of paths and trails. Most of these were animal made. Some of these
trails were broad as a modern highway, others no wider than necessary for bison to make their
way single file along the fringe of the forest. The perambulations of generations of Indians had
also hewn out primitive highways. Whatever the purpose, these roads took the high land,
avoided swamps and can brakes where possible, and, as if attracted by magnetism, forded at the
easiest river crossings. They led the pedestrian to his destination with the greatest possible safety.
1) The reading discusses two of the three myths of the frontier around 1800: the Unknown
Continent and the Trackless Wilderness. We have already dealt with the third: Native
American Invincibility. What were the Myths of the Unknown Continent and the Trackless
Wilderness?
2) How much overlap is there between the description of the Western Frontier in this article
and the list you made in class? Why do you suppose this is the case?