Eight states—Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming—encompass a territory larger than Western Europe (864,000 square miles), shaped by the dramatic Rocky Mountains. This region encompasses the continental divide, separating tributaries flowing to the Pacific from those that eventually feed into the Gulf. It also holds Utah’s Great Salt Lake. Yet, despite mighty rivers like the Snake and Colorado, water is a precious, contested commodity amid wide deserts and deephewn canyons.

Known for vast open spaces, this region encompasses many national parks and extensive lands dedicated to grazing for ranches as well as herds of elk, bison and deer.

In addition to agricultural resources, these states also have exploited subsurface riches, including, coal, oil, natural gas, copper and uranium. Rights to these resources have often pitted environmentalists and federal regulators against citizens; responses have included the Wise Use movement as well as anti-regulation politics creating conservative Republican majorities in many areas.

Culturally and historically these states epitomize complex features associated with the West, including its Native Americans (thirty tribes and 38 million acres of reservation land) and the heritage of Spanish conquest. They have also sheltered later groups as diverse as the Mormons and Basque sheep herders. Finally, these states are strongly identified with cowboys and images of freedom, independence and relations to nature that have spurred interests by migrants escaping rustbelt cities, as well as more extreme survivalists and anti-government militias. These images often eclipse historical labor struggles and quests for civil rights by Native Americans and Hispanics.

The Rockies have undergone intensive postwar development, spurred by agriculture, energy, tourism and federal intervention, including highways as well as high-tech development. This has promoted the rapid growth of important capitals like Denver, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City and an ever-stronger presence of these states in Congress and national politics. Vacation centers from Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons, Aspen and other elite ski resorts to Santa Fe and Southwestern destinations have also appropriated the beauty and solitude of the “natural” landscape. While resorts promote outdoor activities, both winter and summer, professional teams in basketball, baseball and football have also found receptive homes in major metropolitan areas, alongside universities, the arts and other cultural development.

The rugged, natural and heroic images of the Rockies permeate media, from commercials for Coors beer (based in Colorado) to the romanticization of Montana in films like Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It (1992). Redford has also turned his Sundance Institute and annual festival in Utah into a center for independent film. In the 1990s, narratives conveyed both nostalgia and change, as a fiercely independent region faced rapid growth and celebrity status. These disruptions have evoked local questions and the specter of violence and hate crimes against the backdrop of America’s heartland.