Bridging the Distance

Congratulations to editor David B. Danbom on his excellent timing for explaining the motivations behind the ranchers’ occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during winter 2016 as well as the responses of the local community and the Burns Paiute Tribe. This interdisciplinary collection of essays illuminates the consequences of historical decisions. David M. Kennedy’s foreword and Jon K. Lauck’s essay introduce the volume with a solid western historiography. Kennedy observed how surprised Frederick Jackson Turner would be that today’s census data reveals even fewer residents in many areas than in the 1890 census that declared the frontier closed. Lauck adeptly links western historiography to regional identity, suggesting that in efforts to counter the “myth,” new western history has weakened regional attachments and identity. Geoff McGhee cites the 1909 Country Life Commission’s findings that rural Americans lacked access to modern amenities as a parallel for how today’s digital divide affects social and economic inequality in the rural West, particularly when such services are not regulated at the federal level. Internet access is critical to attract permanent residents in an amenities-based economy.

Census · CITES · Commission · Economic history · Frontier · Geography · Historiography · Immigration · Political science · Population · Sociology · Tribe · American Environmental and Regional History · Anthropology · Archaeology and Natural History · Demography · History · History of Science and Medicine · Law