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Defining the West
The Western U.S. is the largest region of the country, covering more than half the land area of the United States. It is also the most geographically diverse, incorporating geographic regions such as the Pacific Coast, the temperate rainforests of the Northwest, the highest mountain ranges (including the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and Cascade Range), the Great Plains, and all of the desert areas located in the United States (the Mojave, Sonoran, Great Basin, and Chihuahua deserts). Given this expansive and diverse geography, together with the region's equally diverse demography, it is no wonder "the West" is difficult to specifically define. The persistent mythology of the Old West also impacts the definition of the region.

Scholars of the West have struggled over the region's definition for decades. The concepts are many and sometimes confusing, but seem to revolve around understanding the West as a specific geographic place, or as a process working historically on a specific geographic place. In other words, it is often a debate of place versus process. Sensing a possible shift in the popular understanding of the West as a region in the early 1990s, historian Walter Nugent conducted a survey of three groups of professionals with ties to the region: a large group of Western historians (187 respondents), and two smaller groups, 25 journalists/publishers and 39 Western authors. The survey respondents as a whole showed just how little agreement there was on the boundaries of the West. A majority of the historian respondents placed the eastern boundary of the West not at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountain states (Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico) as the Census definition does, but instead out on the eastern edge of the Great Plains or on the Mississippi River. In fact, many historians of the West rely on a trans-Mississippi West in their regional histories.

Process
Those understanding the West more as a process see a succession of historical "Wests" created as the frontiers of various imperial powers moved across various lands of the continent of North America.