Far West
Far West,region bounded by the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, and the Northwest and Southwest regions, includes California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. The region varies from the desert wastes of Nevada to the forested Sierra Nevada and fertile valleys of California, and there are rich areas devoted to cattle raising, mining, and agriculture. Industrial activities are associated with the principal cities, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The earliest explorers on the Pacific coast were Cabrillo and Drake, but the Spanish did not effect their occupation until Serra began founding the California missions (1769). The Mission Indians figure in such romances as Ramona and Isidro, and California life during the Spanish period, described from personal observation by Dana in Two Years Before the Mast, is also depicted in the histories of H.H. Bancroft and the novels of Gertrude Atherton and Stewart...
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