Why Would People Travel West?

Published On : 05 Sep 2024

Since history, the territories in the west have always been appealing and attractive to explorers, settlers, and tourists. Since the time human beings began their journeys out of Africa through the colonial explorers searching for new trade routes and frontiers, have always been the driving force to ‘Go West’. For these and many other reasons, the westward lands called people through the ages.

Opportunity & the Spirit of Adventure

The lands to the western horizons symbolized opportunities and possibilities of a new beginning for many people at one time or another in history. The western frontiers offered opportunities for new sources of income, new land to develop, and the ability to establish societies on the frontier distinct from the eastern core. This hardly inhabited area was one where people, who wanted to start anew, could shape the environment according to their desires.

The unknown western lands also appealed to the innate desire for adventure and exploration in people at that time. What would they find if they go beyond the horizon? Would there be gold, good soil for planting, passage for trading or something else? The desire to know what was beyond the next hill or on the other side of the river encouraged many adventurous explorers and travelers to up and move westward. The curiosity of the human spirit was at work as it attempted to unlock the secrets of that unknown territory.

Economic and Resource Potential

Often, western lands represented a hidden economic wealth in the form of deposits, fertile land for agriculture, better trade ways, and other profit earning opportunities. This was aptly captured during the California Gold Rush in the 1800s whereby once gold was discovered in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, thousands of prospectors moved west. Stories of people getting super wealthy through mining gold from the streams and the rivers encouraged many a person to head west in search of the elusive big fortune.

In addition to valuable minerals and minerals, lands to the west also offered both smallscale and large scale farming, ranching and in places such as the Willamette valley of Oregon, large scale farming. Other policies include the Homestead Act of 1862 that allowed settlers to acquire portions of land for a token fee in the hope of using the land for farming. This enabled travelers to become owners of land where they could build their wealth from the produce of the farms. The desire to make some money saw wagons head west.

Religious Freedom

To some like the Mormons and the Puritans, the frontiers of the west offered freedom from the religious persecution. Mormons suffered persecutions almost everywhere they tried to establish their settlements in the areas around New York, Missouri, Illinois and finally they were forced to find a territory where they would be left alone in what is now Utah. They moved further west, through the Mormon Trail in mid-1800s and settled in the region around the Great Salt Lake to establish their communities where they could freely exercise their faith. The west offered sanctuary.

Similarly, religious freedom was another motivating factor for Puritans to move to the New World. Unlike the more Westward based, their famous voyage in 1630 on sailing vessels across Atlantic Ocean set a precedent of looking for frontiers where the minority reformationist could practice their religion, as well as govern themselves in their new western land which would later become New England. The Puritan’s Atlantic voyage and the Mormon’s overland journey both had in mind to light a flame of religious liberty in new western territories.

Getting a Fresh Start, in Body and Soul

Connected to the concepts of opportunity and freedom of religion, the territories in the west were seen as starting anew for those who wanted to replenish themselves physically and spiritually. The famous saying of ‘Go West young man’ embodied this notion that crossing into those western wilds would renew and reshape one as he walked through that territory.

The frontier was viewed as a region in which people could leave behind the rules and the order of the eastern states and of the Old World to live a richer life. The crowded city environment and tiered social organization would be replaced with more space for free choice. When the American frontier was gradually progressing through the nineteenth century and more states are admitted from territories, this ray of renewal attracted many people with new opportunities to start over.

Inspiration of Magnificent Landscapes

Apart from such loftier and generic motivations such as freedom, gold, or religion, noticeable, physical factors such as wondrous and diversification of geographical terrains also helped in encouraging people to go westward. This multiplied the picturesque pieces of frontier trails and roads, which some of the most attractive places that the travelers had seen. From the mighty herds of buffalo charging through the Great Plains to the lofty summits of the Rockies to the white-water rapids of the Columbia, the fabulous places cried ever louder to the spirits inviting the adventurous ever farther into the west.

Testimonies of pioneers expressing their wonder on what they saw around them provided the glamour and grandeur of the western front. That, together with native peoples dressed in bright costumes and living a primitive life, hunting and fishing in the seas also contributed to the attractiveness. Many visitors have been mesmerized by the natural beauty and cultural oddness of the Sun. But what did await them was severe climate and labor; nonetheless, beautiful land enveloped many of those heading west in a sense of stupor.

In Closing

Conquering the unknown buffalo lands of the West for religious freedom or for a shot at striking it rich; for the wide open spaces and the beautiful scenery unmatched back East, the direction West has always called for man’s curiosity and spirit. What started as migrations within the African land masses translated to wagon trails and handcart routes in the North American West in the 1800s. But that desire to continue walking over the horizon towards further frontiers remained constant across cultures and ages. This desire to venture into the realm of the unknown is still a part of human beings to this day.

But as the modes of transport from flying to the World Wide Web have unveiled most terrains of our planet, the anticipation of what new landscapes and adventures may be hiding behind the next rise still fires the imagination and provides desire to look westward one more time. Even today, just as with our forefathers, there are invitations from the territories westward, inviting us to come to explore.

Read More: