As NASA's
Curiosity rover roams Mars' surface, pushing man's frontier into space, the Census Bureau looks back at the American Frontier with its graphic representation of the population growth from the late 18th to late
19th century. In 1790,
the population extended up and down the eastern seaboard - from southern Maine
deep into South Carolina - but the frontier remained close to the Atlantic
Ocean.
By the Louisiana Purchase
in 1803, the frontier extended into the western portion of the U.S., and
population centers on the East Coast expanded rapidly. In the middle of the 19th
century, Americans pushed the limits of civilization well into the Midwest and
established burgeoning cities throughout the region. The frontier remained at borders drawn in the Louisiana
Purchase, but the populace was well on its way to filling in the gaps from the
East Coast to the Midwest. When
the gold rush caught the attention of millions of Americans, the frontier
finally reached the West Coast, and people across the nation tried their
luck in the gold-rich rivers of California. Moving onto the late 19thcentury, the population’s reach extended throughout the entire continental
U.S., and though gaps remained in the Midwest, the Superintendent of the Census
declared the frontier to be nonexistent.
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