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This interactive map allows students to learn all about the states, cities, landforms, landmarks, and places of interest in the American South by simply clicking on the points of the map.

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This interactive map allows students to learn all about the states, cities, landforms, landmarks, and places of interest in the American South by simply clicking on the points of the map.

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This interactive map allows students to learn all about New England's states, cities, landforms, landmarks, and places of interest by simply clicking on t

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This interactive map allows students to learn all about the cities, landforms, landmarks, and places of interest of the midwestern states by simply clickin

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This interactive map allows students to learn all about the Mid-Atlantic states, cities, landforms, landmarks, and places of interest by simply clicking on

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This interactive map allows students to learn all about the southwest's states, cities, landforms, landmarks, and places of interest by simply clicking on

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2023 MrNussbaum.com is a copyright of the Nussbaum Education Network,LLC.

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Mr. Nussbaum - Western States Interactive Map

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This interactive map allows students to learn all about the states, cities, landforms, landmarks, and places of interest in the American West, by simply c

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
2023 MrNussbaum.com is a copyright of the Nussbaum Education Network,LLC.

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Mr. Nussbaum - Western States Interactive Map

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This interactive map allows students to learn all about the states, cities, landforms, landmarks, and places of interest in the American West, by simply c

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The Northeast is a region of the United States that includes the New England region and the Middle Atlantic states. The Northeast includes the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. Many of those states made up the 13 colonies that started the American Revolution.

The Northeast has many resources, including rich fisheries off the coast of Maine, timber deposits in Vermont, and farmlands in Pennsylvania. The region has been a major producer of industry, having led American production of everything from iron and steel to textiles and leather goods. New England is home to some of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the country, including Harvard University (founded 1636) and Yale University (1701). The region also includes some of the most populous cities in the United States, including New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Washington, D.C.; and Boston, Massachusetts.

The Northeast was originally inhabited by a great variety of Native Americans, including the Algonquian-speaking peoples and the Iroquois. The Northeast Indians were pushed off their land by a variety of European colonists, most notably the British. After the American Revolution, much of the Northeast immediately became U.S. states. Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey became the new country's first states in 1787. (Maine was the last state in the Northeast to be admitted to the Union, in 1820). The Northeast, especially New England, was later active in the abolitionist movement that sought to abolish, or end, slavery.

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The Northeast is a region of the United States that includes the New England region and the Middle Atlantic states. The Northeast includes the states of Maine, New Hampshire,...

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The Southwest is a region of the United States. Definitions of the area vary. However, it is generally considered to include the states of New Mexico and Arizona and all or...

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The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. The largest cities by metropolitan area are Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, El Paso, Albuquerque, Denver and Tucson. Before 1848, in the historical region of Santa Fe de Nuevo México as well as parts of Alta California and Coahuila y Tejas, settlement was almost non-existent outside of Nuevo México's Pueblos and Spanish or Mexican municipalities. Much of the area had been a part of New Spain and Mexico until the United States acquired the area through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the smaller Gadsden Purchase in 1854.

While the region's boundaries are not officially defined, there have been attempts to do so. One such definition is from the Mojave Desert in California in the west (117° west longitude) to Carlsbad, New Mexico in the east (104° west longitude); another says that it extends from the Mexico-United States border in the south to the southern areas of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada in the north (39° north latitude). In another definition, the core Southwestern U.S. includes only the states of Arizona and New Mexico; others focus on the land within the old Spanish and Mexican borders of the Nuevo México Province or the later American New Mexico Territory.

Regional geography

The most northwest portion of the American Southwest is covered by the Mojave Desert. Bordered on the south by the Sonoran Desert and the east by the Colorado Plateau, its range within the region makes up the southeast tip of Nevada, the southwestern corner of Utah and the northwestern corner of Arizona. In terms of topography, the Mojave is very similar to the Great Basin Desert, which lies just to its north. Within the region, Las Vegas is the most populous city; other significant population centers include Laughlin and Pahrump in Nevada, St. George and Hurricane in Utah, and Lake Havasu City, Kingman, and Bullhead City in Arizona. The Mojave is the smallest, driest and hottest desert within the United States. The Mojave gets less than 6 in (150 mm) of rain annually, and its elevation ranges from 3,000 to 6,000 feet (900 to 1,800 meters) above sea level. The most prolific vegetation is the tall Joshua tree, which grow as tall as 40 ft (12 m), and are thought to live almost 1000 years. Other major vegetation includes the Parry saltbush and the Mojave sage, both only found in the Mojave, as well as the creosote bush.

Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas dominate the westernmost metropolitan areas in the Southwest, while Albuquerque, and El Paso dominate the easternmost metropolitan areas.

Pre-European contact

Not long after the Hohokam reached the height of their culture, all three major cultures in the Southwest began to decline for unknown reasons, although severe drought and encroachment from other peoples have been postulated. By the end of the 15th century, all three cultures had disappeared. The modern Indian tribes of the Isleta, Hopi, Zuni, Sandia, Cochiti, Santa Ana, Taos, Acoma, and Laguna trace their ancestry back to the ancestral Puebloans, while the Akimel O'odham and Tohono O'odham claim descent from Hohokam. The area previously occupied by the Mogollon was taken over by an unrelated tribe, the Apache. While it is unclear whether any of the modern Indian tribes are descended from the Mogollon, some archeologists and historians believe that they mixed with Ancestral Puebloans and became part of the Hopi and Zuni.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Southwestern United States was inhabited by a very large population of American Indian tribes. The area once occupied by the ancestral Puebloans became inhabited by several American Indian tribes, the most populous of which were the Navajo, Ute, Southern Paiute, and Hopi. The Navajo, along with the Hopi, were the earliest of the modern Indian tribes to develop in the Southwest. Around AD 1100 their culture began to develop in the Four Corners area of the region. The Navahos migrated from northwestern Canada and eastern Alaska, where the majority of Athabaskan speakers reside. The Ute were found over most of modern-day Utah and Colorado, as well as northern New Mexico and Arizona. The Paiutes roamed an area which covered over 45,000 square miles of southern Nevada and California, south-central Utah, and northern Arizona. The Hopi settled the lands of the central and western portions of northern Arizona. Their village of Oraibi, settled in approximately AD 1100, is, along with Acoma Sky City in New Mexico, one of the oldest continuously occupied settlements in the United States. The Mogollon area became occupied by the Apaches and the Zuni. The Apache migrated into the American Southwest from the northern areas of North America at some point between 1200 and 1500. They settled throughout New Mexico, eastern Arizona, northern Mexico, parts of western Texas, and southern Colorado. The Zuni count their direct ancestry through the ancestral Puebloans. The modern-day Zuni established a culture along the Zuni River in far-eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Both major tribes of the O'odham tribe settled in the southern and central Arizona, in the lands once controlled by their ancestors, the Hohokam.

Arrival of Europeans

The first European intrusion into the region came from the south. In 1539, a Jesuit Franciscan named Marcos de Niza led an expedition from Mexico City which passed through eastern Arizona. The following year Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, based on reports from survivors of the Narváez expedition (1528-36) who had crossed eastern Texas on their way to Mexico City, led an expedition to discover the Seven Golden Cities of Cíbola. The 1582-3 expedition of Antonio de Espejo explored New Mexico and eastern Arizona; and this led to Juan de Oñate's establishment of the Spanish province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in 1598, with a capital founded near Ohkay Oweenge Pueblo, which he called San Juan de los Caballeros. Oñate's party also attempted to establish a settlement in Arizona in 1599, but were turned back by inclement weather. In 1610, Santa Fe was founded, making it the oldest capital in United States.

In 1664 Juan Archuleta led an expedition into what is now Colorado, becoming the first European to enter. A second Spanish expedition was led into Colorado by Juan Ulibarrí in 1706, during which he claimed the Colorado territory for Spain.

In 1768, the Spanish created the Provincia de las Californias, which included California and the Southwest US. Over approximately the next 50 years, the Spanish continued to explore the Southwest, and in 1776 the City of Tucson was founded when the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson was created, relocating the presidio from Tubac.

In 1776, two Franciscan priests, Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, led an expedition from Santa Fe heading to California. After passing through Colorado, they became the first Europeans to travel into what is now Utah. Their journey was halted by bad weather in October, and they turned back, heading south into Arizona before turning east back to Santa Fe.

In 1804 Spain divided the Provincia de las Californias, creating the province Alta California, which consisted primarily of what would become California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. In 1821 Mexico achieved its independence from Spain and shortly after, in 1824, developed its constitution, which established the Alta California territory, which was the same geographic area as the earlier Spanish province.

In 1851, San Luis became the first European settlement in what is now Colorado.

Becoming states

Of the states of which at least a portion make up the Southwest, Texas was the first to achieve statehood. On December 29, 1845, the Republic of Texas was annexed, bypassing the status of becoming a territory, and immediately became a state. Initially, its borders included parts of what would become several other states: almost half of New Mexico, a third of Colorado, and small portions of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. Texas current borders were set in the Compromise of 1850, where Texas ceded land to the federal government in exchange for $10 million, which would go to paying off the debt Texas had accumulated in its war with Mexico.

Following the Mexican Cession, the lands of what had been the Mexican territory of Alta California were in flux: portions of what is now New Mexico were claimed, but never controlled, by Texas. With the Compromise of 1850, the states of Texas and California were created (Texas as a slave state, and California as a free state), as well as the Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory. The New Mexico Territory consisted of most of Arizona and New Mexico (excluding a strip along their southern borders), a small section of southern Colorado, and the very southern tip of Nevada; while the Utah Territory consisted of Utah, most of Nevada, and portions of Wyoming and Colorado. The New Mexico Territory was expanded along its southern extent, to its current border, with the signing of the Gadsden Purchase Treaty on December 30, 1853, which was ratified by the U.S. Congress, with some slight alterations, in April 1854.

Utah, as shown above, evolved out of the Utah Territory, as pieces of the original territory created in 1850 were carved out: parts were ceded to Nevada, Wyoming, and Colorado in 1861; another section to Nevada in 1862; and the final section to Nevada in 1866. In 1890, the LDS church issued the 1890 Manifesto, which officially banned polygamy for members of the church. It was the last roadblock for Utah entering the Union, and on January 4, 1896, Utah was officially granted statehood, becoming the 45th state.

In 1869, John Wesley Powell led a 3-month expedition which explored the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. In 1875, he would publish a book describing his explorations, Report of the Exploration of the Columbia River of the West and Its Tributaries, which was later republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons.

In 1877 silver was discovered in southeastern Arizona. The notorious mining town of Tombstone, Arizona was born to service the miners. The town would become immortalized as the scene of what is considered the greatest gunfight in the history of the Old West, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Copper was also discovered in 1877, near Bisbee and Jerome in Arizona, which became an important component of the economy of the Southwest. Production began in 1880 and was made more profitable by the expansion of the railroad throughout the territory during the 1880s.

The early 1880s also saw the completion of the second transcontinental railroad, which ran through the heart of the Southwest, called the "Santa Fe Route". It ran from Chicago, down through Topeka, then further south to Albuquerque, before heading almost due west through northern Arizona to Los Angeles.

The repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893 led to the decline of the silver mining industry in the region.

In 1901, the Santa Fe Railroad reached the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, opening the way for a tourism boom, a trend led by restaurant and hotel entrepreneur Fred Harvey.

The last two territories within the Southwest to achieve statehood were New Mexico and Arizona. By 1863, with the splitting off of the Arizona Territory, New Mexico reached its modern borders. They became states within forty days of one another. On January 6, 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state in the Union. Arizona would shortly follow, becoming the last of the 48 contiguous United States on February 14, 1912.

Since statehood

The 1930s saw the beginning of the ski industry in the Southwest. Resorts were established in Colorado in areas such as Estes Park, Gunnison, and on Loveland Pass. New Mexico's oldest ski area is Sandia Peak Ski Area at the eastern edge of Albuquerque, which opened to skiers in 1936. At the end of the decade, in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah's skiing began to be developed.

Due to the ski conditions in the state, during WWII, the 10th Mountain Division established Camp Hale in Colorado to train elite ski troops.

Origins of the term and historical/cultural variations

Geographer D. W. Meinig defines the Southwest in a very similar fashion to Reed: the portion of New Mexico west of the Llano Estacado and the portion of Arizona east of the Mojave- Sonoran Desert and south of the "canyon lands" and also including the El Paso district of western Texas and the southernmost part of Colorado. Meinig breaks the Southwest down into four distinct subregions. He calls the first subregion " Northern New Mexico", and describes it as focused on Albuquerque and Santa Fe. It extends from the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado to south of Socorro and including the Manzano Mountains, with an east-west breadth in the north stretching from the upper Canadian River to the upper San Juan River. The area around Albuquerque is sometimes called Central New Mexico.

Meinig calls the third subregion "El Paso, Tucson, and the Southern Borderlands". While El Paso and Tucson are distinctly different cities, they serve as anchor points to the hinterland between them. Tucson occupies a large oasis at the western end of the El Paso-Tucson corridor. The region between the two cities is a major transportation trunk with settlements serving both highway and railway needs. There are also large mining operations, ranches, and agricultural oases. Both El Paso and Tucson have large military installations nearby; Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range north of El Paso in New Mexico, and, near Tucson, the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. About 70 miles (110 km) to the southeast are the research facilities at Fort Huachuca. These military installations form a kind of hinterland around the El Paso-Tucson region, and are served by scientific and residential communities such as Sierra Vista, Las Cruces, and Alamogordo. El Paso's influence extends north into the Mesilla Valley, and southeast along the Rio Grande into the Trans-Pecos region of Texas.

The fourth subregion Meinig calls the "Northern Corridor and Navajolands", a major highway and railway trunk which connects Albuquerque and Flagstaff. Just north of the transportation trunk are large blocks of American Indian land.

Historical/archeological

As the US expanded westward, the country's western border also shifted westward, and consequently, so did the location of the Southwestern and Northwestern United States. In the early years of the United States, newly colonized lands lying immediately west of the Appalachian Mountains were detached from North Carolina and given the name Southwest Territory. During the decades that followed, the region known as "the Southwestern United States" covered much of the Deep South east of the Mississippi River.

However, as territories and eventual states to the west were added after the Mexican-American War, the geographical "Southwest" expanded, and the relationship of these new acquisitions to the South itself became "increasingly unclear."

However, archeologist, Erik Reed, gives a description which is the most widely accepted as defining the American Southwest, which runs from Durango, Colorado in the north, to Durango, Mexico, in the south, and from Las Vegas, Nevada in the west to Las Vegas, New Mexico in the East. Reed's definition is roughly equivalent to the western half of the Learning Center of the American Southwest's definition, leaving out any portion of Kansas and Oklahoma, and much of Texas, as well as the eastern half of New Mexico. Since this article is about the Southwestern United States, the areas of Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico will be excluded. The portion left includes Arizona and western New Mexico, the very southernmost part of Utah, southwestern Colorado, the very tip of west Texas, and triangle formed by the southern tip of Nevada. This will be the defined scope that is used in this article unless otherwise specified in a particular area.

Geological/topographical

Parts of the other states make up the various areas that can be included in the Southwest, depending on the source. The Learning Center of the American Southwest (LCAS) does not rely on current state boundaries, and defines the American Southwest as parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. From this perspective, almost all of the region's physiographical traits, geological formations, and weather are contained within a box between 26° and 38° northern latitude, and 98° 30' and 124° western longitude.

Ecological

When looking at the fauna of the region, there is a broader definition of the American Southwest. The Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research defines the Southwest as being only the states of Arizona, New Mexico, with parts of California, Nevada, Texas, and Utah; although they include all of those six states in their map of the region, solely for ease of defining the border.

Lawrence Clark Powell, a major bibliographer whose emphasis is on the Southwest, defined the American Southwest in a 1958 Arizona Highways article as, "the lands lying west of the Pecos, north of the [Mexican] Border, south of the Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon, and east of the mountains which wall off Southern California and make it a land in itself."

Texas has long been the focal point of this dichotomy, and is often considered, as such, the core area of "the South's Southwest." While the Trans-Pecos area is generally acknowledged as part of the desert Southwest, most of Texas and large parts of Oklahoma are often placed into a sub-region of the South, which some consider southwestern in the general framework of the original application, meaning the "Western South". This is an area containing the basic elements of Southern history, culture, politics, religion, and linguistic and settlement patterns, yet blended with traits of the frontier West. While this particular Southwest is notably different in many ways from the classic "Old South" or Southeast, these features are strong enough to give it a separate southwestern identity quite different in nature from that of the interior southwestern states to the west.

One of these distinguishing characteristics in Texas-in addition to having been a Confederate state during the Civil War-is that Indigenous and Spanish American culture never played a central role in the development of this area in relative comparison to the others, as the vast majority of settlers were Anglo and blacks from the South. Although the present-day state of Oklahoma was Indian Territory until the early 20th century, many of these American Indians were from the southeastern United States and became culturally assimilated early on. The majority of members of these tribes also allied themselves with the Confederacy during the Civil War. Combined with that, once the territory was open for settlement, southeastern pioneers made up a disproportionate number of these newcomers. All this contributed to the new state having a character that differed from other parts of the Southwest with large American Indian populations.

The fact that a majority of residents of Texas and Oklahoma-unlike those in other "southwestern" states-self-identify as living in the South and consider themselves southerners rather than the West and westerners-also lends to treating these two states as a somewhat distinct and separate entity in terms of regional classification.

Vegetation and terrain

The region has an extremely diverse bird population, with hundreds of species being found in the American Southwest. In the Chiricahua Mountains alone, in southeastern Arizona, there can be found more than 400 species. Species include Canadian ( Branta canadensis) and snow geese, sandhill cranes ( Grus canadensis), and the roadrunner, the state bird of New Mexico and most famous bird in the region, is found in all states of the Southwest. Birds of prey include the red-tailed hawk ( Buteo jamaicensis), Cooper's hawk ( Accipiter cooperii), the osprey ( Pandion haliaetus), golden eagles ( Aquila chrysaetos), Harris's hawk ( Parabuteo unicinctus), American kestrel ( Falco sparverius), peregrine falcon ( Falco peregrinus), the gray hawk ( Buteo plagiatus), the barn owl ( Tyto alba), the western screech owl ( Megascops kennicottii), the great horned owl ( Bubo virginianus), the elf owl ( Micrathene whitneyi), and the burrowing owl ( Athene cunicularia)

Other bird species include the turkey vulture ( Cathartes aura), the black vulture ( Coragyps atratus), the northern cardinal ( Cardinalis cardinalis), the blue grosbeak ( Passerina caerulea), the house finch ( Haemorhous mexicanus), the lesser goldfinch ( Spinus psaltria), the broad-billed hummingbird ( Cynanthus latirostris), the black-chinned hummingbird ( Archilochus alexandri), Costa's hummingbird ( Calypte costae), Gambel's quail ( Callipepla gambelii), the common raven ( Corvus corax), the Gila woodpecker ( Melanerpes uropygialis), the gilded flicker ( Colaptes chrysoides), the cactus wren ( Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus), and the rock wren ( Salpinctes obsoletus). Four types of doves call the Southwest home: the white-winged dove ( Zenaida asiatica), the mourning dove ( Zenaida macroura), the common ground dove ( Columbina passerina), and the Inca dove ( Columbina inca).

There is a large contingent of snakes native to the region. Among them include the rosy boa ( Lichanura trivirgata); several sub-species of the glossy snake ( Arizona elegans); the Trans-Pecos ratsnake ( Bogertophis subocularis); several sub-species of shovel-nosed snakes; several sub-species of kingsnake, including the desert kingsnake ( Lampropeltis getula splendida) and the Arizona mountain kingsnake ( Lampropeltis pyromelana); the Arizona coral snake ( Micruroides euryxanthus); the western diamondback rattlesnake ( Crotalus atrox); the Trans-Pecos copperhead ( Agkistrodon contortrix pictigaster); the Sonoran sidewinder ( Crotalus cerastes cercobombus); the Arizona black rattlesnake ( Crotalus oreganus cerberus); the western rattlesnake ( Crotalus viridis); the Grand Canyon rattlesnake ( Crotalus oreganus abyssus), found only in Arizona; several sub-species of the ridge-nosed rattlesnake ( Crotalus willardi), the most recent rattlesnake species to be discovered in the United States, including the New Mexico ridge-nosed rattlesnake ( Crotalus willardi obscurus), and the Arizona ridge-nosed rattlesnake, the state reptile of Arizona; and the desert massasauga ( Sistrurus catenatus edwardsii).

Other reptiles in the region include lizards and turtles. Lizards are highly represented in the region, the most distinctive denizen being the Gila monster, native only to the American Southwest and the state of Sonora in Mexico. The New Mexico whiptail is the state reptile of New Mexico. Other lizards include: Sonoran collared lizard ( Crotaphytus nebrius); several types of geckos, including western banded gecko ( Coleonyx variegatus), the common house gecko ( Hemidactylus frenatus), and the Mediterranean house gecko ( Hemidactylus turcicus), the last two species being non-native to the region but have been introduced; the desert iguana ( Dipsosaurus dorsalis); the chuckwalla ( Sauromalus ater); the greater earless lizard ( Cophosaurus texanus scitulus); several sub-species of horned lizards ( Phrynosoma); numerous species of spiny lizards ( Sceloporus); Gilbert's skink ( Plestiodon gilberti); the western skink ( Plestiodon skiltonianus); Trans-Pecos striped whiptail ( Aspidoscelis inornata heptagrammus); and the Arizona night lizard ( Xantusia arizonae). Turtles are less numerous than their other reptilian counterparts, but several are found in the region, including: the western painted turtle ( Chrysemys picta bellii); the Rio Grande cooter ( Pseudemys gorzugi); the desert box turtle ( Terrapene ornata luteola); the Big Bend slider ( Trachemys gaigeae gaigeae); the Sonora mud turtle ( Kinosternon sonoriense); and the desert tortoise ( Gopherus agassizii).

Amphibians include numerous toads and frogs in the American Southwest. Toads which can be found in the region include the Great Plains toad ( Anaxyrus cognatus); the green toad ( Anaxyrus debilis); the Arizona toad ( Anaxyrus microscaphus); the New Mexico spadefoot ( Spea multiplicata stagnalis); and the Colorado River toad ( Incilius alvarius), also known as the Sonoran Desert toad. Frog representation includes: western barking frog ( Craugastor augusti); the canyon tree frog ( Hyla arenicolor); the Arizona treefrog ( Hyla wrightorum); the western chorus frog ( Pseudacris triseriata); Chiricahua leopard frog ( Lithobates chiricahuensis); and the relict leopard frog ( Lithobates onca). There are quite a few salamanders throughout the region, including: the Arizona tiger salamander ( Ambystoma mavortium nebulosum) and the painted ensatina ( Ensatina eschscholtzii picta).

The southwestern United States features a semi-arid to arid climate, depending on the location. Much of the Southwest is an arid desert climate, but higher elevations in the mountains in each state, with the exception of West Texas, feature alpine climates with very large amounts of snow. The metropolitan areas of Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, and El Paso hardly ever receive any snow at all, as they are strictly desert lands with mountains. Albuquerque receives less snow than other cities, but still receives significant snowfalls occasionally in the winter. Although it snows in this region, the snow in this part of the United States melts rapidly, often before nightfall. This is due mainly to the higher altitude and abundant sunshine in these states.

Nevada and Arizona are both generally arid with desert lands and mountains, and receive large amounts of snow in the higher elevations in and near the mountains. New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado are generally arid, with desert lands and mountains as well. They all receive decent amounts of snow and large amounts of snow in the high elevations in the mountains, although some areas in far southwestern and southern New Mexico do not receive much snow at all at lower elevations. West Texas is generally arid as well but does not receive the same amount of snow that the other southwestern states receive at their high elevations. The terrain of western Texas in the Southwest is the flat, rolling land of the plains, which eventually turns into a desert with some hills. There are significant mountains as well in west Texas upon reaching the Trans-Pecos area.

During El Niño, winters and springs are generally colder and wetter across southern portions of the region, while the northern portion stays warmer and drier due to a southern jet stream. Under La Niña, the opposite happens, meaning the cool and wet weather tends to stay farther north. The Southwest also experiences multi-year and multi-decade episodes of severe drought, including the ongoing southwestern North American megadrought which emerged starting year 2000.

National parks, monuments and forests

Colorado parks and monuments include Great Sand Dunes, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and Mesa Verde national parks; the national monuments of Browns Canyon, Canyons of the Ancients, Colorado, Hovenweep, and Yucca House. Other federal areas include Curecanti National Recreation Area and Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site; as well as the national forests of San Isabel, San Juan, and Uncompahgre.

Utah national parks include Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion. National monuments include Bears Ears, Cedar Breaks, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Hovenweep (also in Colorado), Natural Bridges, and Rainbow Bridge. Other federal areas include Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Dixie National Forest, and Manti-La Sal National Forest.

The largest African American populations in the Southwest can be found in Las Vegas (10%), San Antonio (7%), and Phoenix (5%).

Cities and urban areas

The area also contains many of the nation's largest cities and metropolitan areas, despite relatively low population density in rural areas. Phoenix is the fifth most populous city in the country, and Albuquerque and Las Vegas were some of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. Also, the region as a whole has witnessed some of the highest population growth in the United States, and according to the US Census Bureau, in 2008-2009, Utah was the fastest-growing state in America. As of the 2010 Census, Nevada was the fastest-growing state in the United States, with an increase of 35.1% in the last ten years. Additionally, Arizona (24.6%), Utah (23.8%), Texas (20.6%), and Colorado (16.9%) were all in the top ten fastest-growing states as well.

The five largest cities of the American Southwest (2020 census)

Largest cities and metropolitan areas (2020 census)

Professional

In 1997, the Phoenix Mercury were one of the original eight teams to launch the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Indoor American football is represented by the Arizona Rattlers located in Phoenix. The region is also host to several major professional golf events: the LPGA's Founder's Cup; the Phoenix Open and the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (in Las Vegas) of the PGA; and the Tucson Conquistadores Classic (in Tucson), and the Charles Schwab Cup Championship (in Scottsdale) on the Champions Tour of the PGA.

The Southwest is also home to some of the most prominent rodeos in North America. The Professional Bull Riders association has its headquarters in Pueblo, Colorado. The PBR World Finals are held annually in Las Vegas, which also hosts the National Finals Rodeo, which is the nation's premier rodeo event. Other major rodeo events include the week-long Fiesta de los Vaqueros in Tucson, the World's Oldest Rodeo in Prescott, Arizona, the Southwestern International PRCA Rodeo in El Paso, Texas, and the Rodeo de Santa Fe, one of the nation's premier rodeos.

The Southwest is home to a rich tradition of college sports. The Pac-12 Conference has two teams in the region, the Arizona State Sun Devils and the University of Arizona Wildcats. The Mountain West Conference also has two teams, the UNLV Rebels and the University of New Mexico Lobos. Conference USA is represented by the University of Texas at El Paso Miners. The Big Sky Conference has two teams: the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the Southern Utah University Thunderbirds in Cedar City, Utah. The Western Athletic Conference also has two representatives, the New Mexico State University Aggies in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and the Grand Canyon University Antelopes in Phoenix.

The Southwest is the site of six college football bowl games: the TicketCity Cactus Bowl, formerly known as the Insight Bowl, in Tempe; the Arizona Bowl in Tucson; the Fiesta Bowl, played at the University of Phoenix Stadium; the Las Vegas Bowl; the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque; and the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.

In Spanish: Suroeste de Estados Unidos para niños

Pacific Southwest

Southwest Conference (for a different division of the US for sports)

Water Education Foundation

Western United States

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Southwestern United States Facts for Kids

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The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southern United States to its south, and the Midwestern United States to its west. The Northeast is one of the four regions defined by the U.S. Census Bureau for the collection and analysis of statistics. The region is usually defined as including nine U.S. states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The U.S. Census Bureau-defined region of the Northeastern United States has a total area of 181,324 sq mi (469,630 km ²) with 162,257 sq mi (420,240 km ²) of that being land mass, making it the smallest region of the United States by both land mass and total area. The Northeastern region is the nation's most economically developed, densely populated, and culturally diverse region. Of the nation's four census regions, the Northeast has the second-largest percentage of residents living in an urban setting, with 85 percent, and is home to the nation's largest metropolitan area. The Northeast is home to most of the Northeast megalopolis, the most economically significant and second most-populated of eleven megaregions within the United States, accounting for 20% of U.S. GDP as of 2016.

Indigenous people

Anthropologists recognize the "Northeastern Woodlands" as one of the cultural regions that existed in the Western Hemisphere at the time of European colonists in the 15th and later centuries. Most did not settle in North America until the 17th century. The cultural area, known as the " Northeastern Woodlands", in addition to covering the entire Northeast U.S., also covered much of what is now Canada and others regions of what is now the eastern United States.

Among the many tribes that inhabited this area were those that made up the Iroquois nations and the numerous Algonquian peoples. In the United States of the 21st century, 18 federally recognized tribes reside in the Northeast. For the most part, the people of the Northeastern Woodlands, on whose lands European fishermen began camping to dry their codfish in the early 1600s, lived in villages, especially after being influenced by the agricultural traditions of the Ohio and Mississippi valley societies.

Colonial history

All of the U.S. states making up the Northeastern region were among the original Thirteen Colonies, though Maine, Vermont, and Delaware were part of other colonies before the United States became independent in the American Revolution. The two cultural and geographic regions that form parts of the Northeastern region have distinct histories.

New England

The first Europeans to settle New England were Pilgrims from England, who landed in present-day Massachusetts in 1620. The Pilgrims arrived on the ship and founded Plymouth Colony so they could practice religion freely. Ten years later, a larger group of Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston to form Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1636, colonists established Connecticut Colony and Providence Plantations. Providence was founded by Roger Williams, who was banished by Massachusetts for his beliefs in freedom of religion, and it was the first colony to guarantee all citizens freedom of worship. Anne Hutchinson, who was also banished by Massachusetts, formed the town of Portsmouth. Providence, Portsmouth and two other towns ( Newport and Warwick) consolidated to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Although the first settlers of New England were motivated by religion, since the 21st century, New England had become one of the least religious parts of the United States. In a 2009 Gallup survey, less than half of residents in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts reported religion as an important part of their daily life. In a 2010 Gallup survey, less than 30% of residents in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts reported attending church weekly, giving them the lowest church attendance among U.S. states.

New England played a prominent role in early American education. Starting in the 17th century, the larger towns in New England opened grammar schools, the forerunner of the modern high school. The first public school in the English colonies was the Boston Latin School, founded in 1635. In 1636, the colonial legislature of Massachusetts founded Harvard College, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.

Mid-Atlantic

The first European explorer known to have explored the Atlantic shoreline of the Northeast since the Norse was Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524. His ship La Dauphine explored the coast from what is now known as Florida to New Brunswick. Henry Hudson explored the area of present-day New York in 1609 and claimed it for the Netherlands. His journey stimulated Dutch interest, and the area became known as New Netherland. In 1625, the city of New Amsterdam (the location of present-day New York City) was designated the capital of the province. The Dutch New Netherland settlement along the Hudson River and, for a time, the New Sweden settlement along the Delaware River divided the English settlements in the north and the south. In 1664, Charles II of England formally annexed New Netherland and incorporated it into the English colonial empire. The territory became the colonies of New York and New Jersey. New Jersey was originally split into East Jersey and West Jersey until the two were united as a royal colony in 1702.

In 1681, William Penn, who wanted to give Quakers a land of religious freedom, founded Pennsylvania and extended freedom of religion to all citizens. Penn strongly desired access to the sea for his Pennsylvania Province and leased what then came to be known as the "Lower Counties on the Delaware" from the Duke. Penn established representative government and briefly combined his two possessions under one General Assembly in 1682. However, by 1704 the Province of Pennsylvania had grown so large that their representatives wanted to make decisions without the assent of the Lower Counties and the two groups of representatives began meeting on their own, one at Philadelphia, and the other at New Castle, Delaware. Penn and his heirs remained proprietors of both and always appointed the same person Governor for their Province of Pennsylvania and their territory of the Lower Counties. The fact that Delaware and Pennsylvania shared the same governor was not unique. From 1703 to 1738, New York and New Jersey shared a governor. Massachusetts and New Hampshire also shared a governor for some time.

The vast area from central Virginia to northern Maine, and from western Pennsylvania, from Pittsburgh in the west to the Atlantic Ocean in the east, have all been loosely grouped into the Northeast, including six of Pennsylvania's seven largest cities, Allentown, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Reading, Scranton, and Bethlehem.

Using the U.S. Census Bureau's definition of the Northeast, the region includes nine states: Maine, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. The region is often subdivided into New England (the six states east of New York State) and the Mid-Atlantic states (New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania). This definition has been essentially unchanged since 1880 and is widely used as a standard for data tabulation. However, the U.S. Census Bureau has acknowledged the obvious limitations of this definition and the potential merits of a proposal created after the 1950 census, that would include changing regional boundaries to include Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia with the Mid-Atlantic states, but ultimately decided that "the new system did not win enough overall acceptance among data users to warrant adoption as an official new set of general-purpose state groupings. The previous development of many series of statistics, arranged and issued over long periods of time on the basis of the existing State groupings, favored the retention of the summary units of the current regions and divisions." The U.S. Census Bureau confirmed in 1994 that it would continue to "review the components of the regions and divisions to ensure that they continue to represent the most useful combinations of states and state equivalents."

Many organizations and reference works follow the Census Bureau's definition for the region. In the history of the United States, the Mason-Dixon line between Pennsylvania ( the North) and Maryland ( the South) traditionally divided the regions, but in modern times, various entities define the Northeastern United States in somewhat different ways. The Association of American Geographers divides the Northeast into two divisions: "New England", which is the same as the Census Bureau; and it has the same "Middle States" but adds Delaware. Similarly, the Geological Society of America defines the Northeast as these same states but with the addition of Maryland and the District of Columbia. The narrowest definitions include only the states of New England. Other more restrictive definitions include New England and New York as part of the Northeast United States, but exclude Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

States beyond the Census Bureau definition are included in Northeast Region by various other entities:

Various organizations include: Delaware, Maryland and District of Columbia.

The US EPA and NOAA include in their Northeast Region: Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia.

The National Fish and Wildlife Service includes in their Northeast Region: Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, and Virginia.

The National Park Service includes in their Northeast Region: Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia (though small parts are also in the National Capital Region).

Environment

Topography

While most of the Northeastern United States lie in the Appalachian Highlands physiographic region; some are also part of the Atlantic coastal plain, which extends south to the southern tip of Florida. The coastal plain areas include Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Long Island in New York, most of New Jersey, Delaware and the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia) are generally low and flat, with sandy soil and marshy land. The highlands, including the Piedmont and the Appalachian Mountains, are generally heavily forested, ranging from rolling hills to summits greater than 6,000 feet (1,800 m), and pocked with many lakes. The highest peak in the Northeast is Mount Washington, New Hampshire at 6,288 feet (1,917 m).

As of 2012, forest-use covered approximately 60% of the Northeastern states (including Delaware, Maryland and the District of Columbia), about twice the national average. About 11% was cropland and another 4% grassland pasture or range. There is also more urbanized land in the Northeast (12%) than any other region in the U.S.

The climate of the Northeastern United States varies from northernmost Maine to southernmost Maryland. The climate of the region is created by the position of the general west to east flow of weather in the middle latitudes that much of the USA is controlled by and the position and movement of the subtropical highs. Summers are normally warm in northern areas to hot in southern areas. In summer, the building Bermuda High pumps warm and sultry air toward the Northeast, and frequent (but brief) thundershowers are common on hot summer days. In winter the subtropical high retreats southeastward, and the polar jet stream moves south bringing colder air masses from up in Canada and more frequent storm systems to the region. Winter often brings both rain and snow as well as surges of both warm and cold air.

The basic climate of the Northeast can be divided into a colder and snowier interior (western Maryland, most of Pennsylvania, most of northern New Jersey, Upstate New York, and most of New England), and a milder coast and coastal plain from Cape Cod and southern Rhode Island southward, including Long Island, New Haven, New York City, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. In the latter region the hardiness zones are 7a and 7b. Annual mean temperatures range from the low-to-mid 50s F from Maryland to southern Connecticut, to the 40s F in most of New York State, New England, and northern Pennsylvania.

Most of the Northeast has a humid continental climate ( Dfa/Dfb/Dc). The northernmost portion of the humid subtropical zone ( Cfa/Do) begins at Martha's Vineyard and extreme SW Rhode Island and extends southwestward down the coastal plain to central and southern Maryland. The oceanic climate zone ( Cfb/Do) only exists on Block Island and Nantucket and is the only area of the Northeast where all months average between 0 and 22 °C (32 and 71.6 °F).

The Northeast has 72 National Wildlife Refuges, encompassing more than 500,000 acres (780 sq mi; 2,000 km ²) of habitat and designed to protect some of the 92 different threatened and endangered species living in the region.

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, the population of the region totaled 57,609,148. With an average of 345.5 people per square mile, the Northeast is 2.5 times as densely populated as the second-most dense region, the South. Since the last century, the U.S. population has been shifting away from the Northeast and Midwest toward the South and West.

The two U.S. Census Bureau divisions in the Northeast ( New England and Mid-Atlantic) rank #2 and #1 among the 9 divisions in population density according to the 2013 population estimate. The South Atlantic region (233.1) was very close behind New England (233.2). Due to the faster growth of the South Atlantic region, it will take over the #2 division rank in population density in the next estimate, dropping New England to 3rd position. New England is projected to retain the number 3 rank for many, many years, as the only other lower-ranked division with even half the population density of New England is the East North Central division (192.1) and this region's population is projected to grow slowly.

As of 2012, the Northeast U.S. accounts for approximately 23% of the nation's gross domestic product.

New York City, considered the world's financial center, is the most populous city in both the U.S. and Northeast U.S. As of 2018, the New York metropolitan area is estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of nearly $1.8 trillion, ranking it first in the U.S. If the New York metropolitan area were a sovereign state, it would have the eighth-largest economy in the world.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversees 34 nuclear reactors, eight for research or testing and 26 for power production in the Northeastern United States.

Transportation

Rail systems

The following table includes all airports categorized by the FAA as large hubs located in the Northeastern states (New England and Eastern regions):

One geographer, Wilbur Zelinsky, asserts that the Northeast region lacks a unified cultural identity, but has served as a "culture hearth" for the rest of the nation. Several much smaller geographical regions within the Northeast have distinct cultural identities.

Almost half of the National Historic Landmarks maintained by the National Park Service are located in the Northeastern United States.

According to a 2009 Gallup poll, the Northeastern states differ from most of the rest of the U.S. in religious affiliation, generally reflecting the descendants of immigration patterns of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with many Catholics arriving from Ireland, Italy, French Canada - Quebec, Portugal and east-central Europe. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey are the only states in the nation where Catholics outnumber Protestants and other Christian denominations. More than 20% of respondents in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont declared no religious identity. Compared to other U.S. regions, the Northeast, along with the Pacific Northwest, has had the lowest regular religious service attendance and the fewest people for whom religion is an important part of their daily lives as of 2015.

The Northeast region is home to numerous professional sports franchises in the "Big Four" leagues (NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB), with more than 100 championships collectively among them.

Major League Soccer features four Northeastern teams: New England Revolution, New York City FC, New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia Union. The region also has two WNBA teams: Connecticut Sun and New York Liberty.

Notable golf tournaments in the Northeastern United States include The Northern Trust, Travelers Championship, and Atlantic City LPGA Classic. The US Open, held in New York, is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments.

Notable Northeastern motorsports tracks include Watkins Glen International, Pocono Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Lime Rock Park, which have hosted Formula One, IndyCar, NASCAR and International Motor Sports Association races. Also, drag strips such as Englishtown, Epping and Reading have hosted NHRA national events. Belmont Park at New York hosts the Belmont Stakes horse races, which is part of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.

The region has also been noted for the prevalence of the traditionally Northeastern sports of ice hockey and lacrosse.

The rate of potentially preventable hospitalizations in the Northeastern United States fell from 2005 to 2011 for overall conditions, acute conditions, and chronic conditions.

Main page: Political party strength in U.S. states

The Northeastern United States tended to vote Republican in federal elections through the first half of the 20th century, but the region has since the 1990s shifted to become the most Democratic in the nation. Results from a 2008 Gallup poll indicated that eight of the top ten Democratic states were located in the region, with every Northeastern state having a Democratic Party affiliation advantage of at least ten points. The following table demonstrates Democratic support in the Northeast as compared to the remainder of the nation.

The following table of United States presidential election results since 1920 illustrates that over the past seven presidential elections, only three Northeastern states supported a Republican candidate (New Hampshire voted for George W. Bush in 2000; Pennsylvania and Maine's 2nd congressional district voted for Donald Trump in 2016). 2004 is so far the only election in U.S. history in which the winner did not win any northeastern state. Bolded entries indicate that party's candidate also won the general election.

The following table shows the breakdown of party affiliation of governors, attorneys general, state legislative houses and U.S. congressional delegation for the Northeastern states, as of May 2020. (Demographics reflect registration-by-party figures from that state's registered voter statistics.)

State

Governor

Attorney general

Upper House majority

Lower House majority

Senior U.S. senator

Junior U.S. senator

U.S. House delegation

Demographics

In Spanish: Nordeste de Estados Unidos para niños

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Northeastern United States Facts for Kids

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Learn Northeastern United States facts for kids

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The Middle Atlantic region is an area in the northeastern United States. It includes the states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania and the District...

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U.S. STATE FACTS

The Blue Ridge Mountains

Southeast U.S. Facts
The Southeastern portion of the United States is known for many things besides its stretches of sandy costal beaches with frolicking kids and its mild, humid climate. It is known for its welcoming people and southern hospitality, the place where country music was born, fine cuisine, Latin influence, important shipping ports, swamps, and hurricanes just to name a few. It is home to Disney World, the most visited theme park in the world, as well as the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Steeped in history, the first slaves to come to America were brought here, Native American tribes such as the Cherokee lived off the land, and it was part of events that ultimately shaped the country such as the American Revolution and the American Civil War. Below you will find lists of interesting facts about this region including what states it includes and where some of the points of interest are. On this page you will also find links to interesting information and facts about each state in the Southeast geographical region.

Click here for a great selection ofAmazon.com books about the Southeast.

Basic Southeast Region US State Facts

The twelve states that make up this Region are South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky and Louisiana.

Of the Southeast region states, Florida is the most populous with 19,552,860 (2013 U.S. Census Bureau) people and Jacksonville, Florida is the most populous city with 836,507 people (2012 U.S. Census Bureau).

Being closer to the equator than the Northeast region, the climate in the Southeast tends to be very mild and humid with hot summers and short winters.

Dixie is the nickname given to the Southeastern portion of the United States.

Because many of the people in the southeast have values that are centered around religion and conservatism, much of the southeast region is informally known as the "Bible Belt".

The southeast region is part of what is called the Sun Belt which stretches across the southern part of the U.S. and includes many types of climates from dessert to tropical. The southeast region is considered to be the humid subtropical portion.

Southeast Region Points of Interest

The Florida Everglades, a treasured National Park and a sanctuary for countless animal species, many endangered or threatened, is the largest subtropical wilderness area in all of North America.

Mount Mitchell in North Carolina is part of the Appalachian Mountain range and at 6,684 feet (2,037 meters) has the distinction of being the highest point in the Southeastern United States.

The Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains, extend through numerous eastern states including the southeastern states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and the northeast tip of Georgia.

Known as the "The Gateway of the Americas", the port of Miami is the most popular cruise ship port in the world.

For the last 140 years, the annual Kentucky Derby horse race has taken place in Louisville, Kentucky.

Interesting Southeast Region U.S. State Facts

The Southeast region of the United States is home to about 2 million wild boars, also called feral pigs.

Two of the main natural resources in this region are pine trees and coal.

The most well-known swamp areas in the country, including the Okefenokee Swamp, are located in the southeast; mostly in Florida and Georgia.

Throughout US history crops were and still are an important income producer for this region. The mild weather and plentiful rainfall create optimal growing conditions for crops such as tobacco, cotton and peanuts.

Scattered throughout the Southeast United States are numerous historic sites including famous battlefields like Fredericksburg, historic cemeteries such as Arlington National Cemetery and historic homes such as Monticello.

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SOUTHEAST U.S. REGION - over 20 interesting key facts

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U.S. STATE FACTS The Southeastern portion of the United States is known for many things besides its stretches of sandy costal beaches with frolicking kids and its mild, humid climate. It is known for its welcoming people and southern hospitality, the place where country music was born, fine cuisine, Latin influence, important shipping ports, swamps, and hurricanes just to name a few.

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The Southwest region of the United States encompasses vast canyons, high plateaus, sandy deserts, and wide-open grasslands.

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The Northwest is a region in the northwestern United States that includes the states of Oregon and Washington and part of Idaho. Lying along the Pacific Ocean, the Northwest is also called the Pacific Northwest. Oregon and Washington form part of the Pacific Coast region as well, and all of the Northwest is part of the larger U.S. region called the West.

The Northwest is a region of spectacular beauty and valuable natural resources. However, its relatively wet climate and rugged landscape have discouraged settlement, and the region has some of the least populated land in the United States. Furthermore, the Northwest has tended to rely on a few big industries, such as timber, which can cause severe fluctuations in the economy. Government, particularly in Oregon, has tended to be progressive and especially sensitive to environmental issues.

The western section of the region is mountainous, with fertile valleys and lush forests. The Coast Ranges extend parallel to the coast, while the higher Cascade Range runs farther east. These two mountain groups are separated by broad lowlands known as the Puget Sound lowland in Washington and the Willamette valley in Oregon. In northwestern Washington thick rainforests cover the western slopes of the Olympic Mountains. The mountains lie to the west of Puget Sound, a deep inlet of the North Pacific Ocean. The eastern part of the Northwest region is drier and includes deserts, plateaus, and mountains. It is dominated by a large interior plain called the Columbia Plateau, which is drained by the Columbia River.

Most of the Northwest's people live in the western part of the region, especially in the Puget Sound lowland and the Willamette valley. The region's largest cities- Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon-are found in those lowlands. The largest cities in the eastern part of the Northwest are Spokane, Washington, and Boise, Idaho.

American Indians of the Northwest Coast and Plateau culture areas have lived in the Northwest for thousands of years. After the arrival of Europeans, the region was claimed by Spain, Britain, Russia, and finally the United States. Britain and the United States jointly occupied the Northwest for a time until 1846. In that year the 49th parallel was made the boundary between the United States and British-held Canada. The Northwest was explored by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1804-06 and by various trappers and fur traders. In the 1840s settlers began arriving by way of the Oregon Trail. Farming and trapping were the original economic mainstays. In later years lumbering, fishing, and mining became important to the economy. By the late 20th and early 21st centuries, tourism had become a major source of income for the Northwest.

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The Northwest is a region in the northwestern United States that includes the states of Oregon and Washington and part of Idaho. Lying along the Pacific Ocean, the Northwest is also called the Pacific Northwest. Oregon and Washington form part of the Pacific Coast region as well, and all of the Northwest is part of the larger U.S.

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The West is a region in the western United States that lies mostly west of the Great Plains. The U.S. government defines it as including the states of Alaska, Arizona,…

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Author - Samantha S. Bell

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The Mid-Atlantic region includes iconic and well-known places within the United States, such as the nation's capital, Washington, DC.

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Author - Samantha S. Bell Create an Epic account to start reading! The Mid-Atlantic region includes iconic and well-known places within the United States, such as the nation's capital, Washington, DC. Read this Book on Epic!