Money to be made by moving into the interior

. money to be made by moving into the interior - agricultural land,
timber, furs, etc.
2. Freedom → people who lived in colonies were subjects of the English Crown - after the
revolution people were free - Americans were free to do what they wanted - no king or ruler -
trappings of feudalism were removed
3. Independence → pioneers fiercely pursued independence - people pushing westward away
from the Atlantic coast wanted to be independent of civilization, institutions and government
Hillbillies and hillbilly folklore - fell trees, built log cabins, burned forests to get trees out of the way,
made moonshine whiskey, feuded w/ neighbors, wanted to be away from civilizations
- Legacy of wasteful agricultural practices - they would wear out the land and the resources, and
then would move on to another place - resources were believed to be inexhaustible James
Fenimore Cooper - Wasting Ways of the American Pioneers
- “Next Ridge Syndrome” - just move to the next ridge - American attitude towards the
environment throughout the 1800s going into the 1900s
Louisiana Purchase 1803 - $15 million from France, doubling the size of the US - Jefferson saw this as a
way to continue American westward expansion
1800s - rapid development following the Industrial Revolution
Response to Industrialization: Preservation Movement
- Broad Arrow Policy - Quaker policy that was initiated in 1681 → said that for every 4 acres of
forest that you cut down, you have to leave 1 acre of forest un-cut → forest conservation -
scientific management of the forest (conserve fresh water, leaves trees to propagate, saves
habitats, etc.) - the British government like this because they believed it would leave big trees for
their ship masts.
- Anticipation of what we will see with forestry in the 1800s.
Muir, Thoreau, Wordsworth - all three are participating in the cultural tradition and contributing to the
myth of the mountain as cathedral
Sublime: rare places on earth where one had more chance than elsewhere to glimpse the face of God
On mountaintops, chasms, waterfalls - Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon
Religious experience - symbols of God’s presence on Earth
Wilderness was also being tamed - settlements, tourists, domestication of the sublime
The modern environmental movement is a grandchild of romanticism and post-frontier ideology
He loved the wilderness and wanted to be a part of it - called the Sierra’s the “range of light” - wild nature
reflected God - nature was a mirror reflecting the creator
He pioneered the idea of mountaineering (backpacking)

Key Parts of the Utilitarian Conservation Movement:
Big extractive industries in the West - US became a huge industrial power
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