Western United States

===20th century===
[[File:The Harmsworth atlas and Gazetter 1908 (135851697).jpg|thumb|Western United States in 1908 from ''The Harmsworth atlas and Gazetter'']]
[[Image:Route66 sign.jpg|thumb|[[U.S. Route 66]] accelerated the development of the Western United States.]]

The advent of the [[history of the automobile|automobile]] enabled the average American to tour the West. Western businessmen promoted [[U.S. Route 66|Route 66]] as a means to bring tourism and industry to the West. In the 1950s, representatives from all the western states built the [[National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum|Cowboy Hall of Fame]] and [[Western Heritage Center]] to showcase western culture and greet travelers from the [[Eastern United States|East]]. During the latter half of the 20th century, several transcontinental interstate highways crossed the West bringing more trade and tourists from the East. Oil boom towns in [[Texas]] and [[Oklahoma]] rivaled the old mining camps for their rawness and wealth. The [[Dust Bowl]] forced children of the original homesteaders even further west.<ref>Donald Worster, ''Dust bowl: the southern plains in the 1930s'' (Oxford University Press, 1982)</ref>

The movies became America's chief entertainment source featuring [[western fiction]], later the community of [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] in [[Los Angeles]] became the [[headquarters]] of the [[mass media]] such as radio and television production.<ref>Allen John Scott, ''On Hollywood: The place, the industry'' (Princeton University Press, 2005)</ref>

[[History of California 1900–present|California]] has emerged as the most populous state and one of the top 10 economies in the world. Massive late 19th–20th century population and settlement booms created two [[megalopolis]] areas of the [[Greater Los Angeles]]/[[Southern California]] and the [[San Francisco Bay Area]]/[[Northern California]] regions, one of the nation's largest metropolitan areas and in the top 25 largest urban areas in the world. Five more metropolitan areas of [[San Bernardino, California|San Bernardino]]-[[Riverside, California|Riverside]], [[San Diego]], [[Denver]], [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]], and [[Seattle]] have over a million residents, while the three fastest growing metro areas were the [[Salt Lake City metropolitan area]], the [[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas metropolitan area]]; and the [[Portland metropolitan area]].<ref>{{cite book|first = Lawrence H.|last=Larsen |title = The Urban West at the End of the Frontier|date = 1978|isbn =  978-0700601684 |publisher = Univ Pr of Kansas}}</ref><ref>Earl Pomeroy, ''American Far West in the Twentieth Century'' (Yale University Press, 2008)</ref>

Since the mid-1970s, historians of the West have emphasized the [[World War II]] years as a major watershed, as a region experienced enormous social and economic change, and became the pacesetter for [[sociocultural evolution|societal evolution]]. The population soared, especially in metropolitan areas, as a result of massive expansion of the manufacture of airplanes, ships and munitions and of military and Naval training facilities. California upgraded universities to world-class status, intensified scientific research, and expanded infrastructure. After the war millions more migrated using the [[GI Bill]] to buy suburban homes, many of them recalling rewarding wartime experience in military training facilities. The region had always been more democratic with greater [[racial equality|racial]] and [[gender equality]], and continued as a national pacesetter in modernization. New problems emerged, especially environmental issues where westerners took the lead in areas such as the allocation of scarce water resources as well as dealing with smog and air pollution. More recently historians have looked at nuances, pointing out that some of the trends began before 1941.<ref>Mark Brilliant, and David M. Kennedy, eds., ''World War II and the West It Wrought'' (Stanford University Press, 2020) pp 1–3, 179–180. [https://www.amazon.com/World-War-II-West-Wrought/dp/1503611574/ excerpt].</ref>

[[Los Angeles]] has the largest [[Mexican Americans|Mexican]] population outside of [[Mexico]], while [[San Francisco]] has the largest [[Chinese Americans|Chinese]] community in [[North America]] and also has a large [[LGBT]] community, and [[Oakland, California]] has a large percentage of residents being [[African Americans|African-American]], as well as [[Long Beach, California]] which also has a significant black community. The state of [[Utah]] has a [[Mormons|Mormon]] majority (estimated at 62.4% in 2004),<ref>{{cite news | url= http://www.sltrib.com/ci_2886596 | title=Mormon Portion of Utah Population Steadily Shrinking | author=Canham, Matt | agency=The Salt Lake Tribune| date=July 24, 2005 | access-date=February 23, 2012}}</ref> while some cities like [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]]; [[Billings, Montana]]; [[Spokane, Washington]]; and [[Tucson, Arizona]] are located near [[Indian reservation]]s. In remote areas there are settlements of [[Alaskan Natives]] and [[Native Hawaiians]].