LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Remember American frontiers To the Times:
Absorbing its Western frontier gave 19th century America a core
task. In 1890 the Census Bureau, which tracked frontier
settlement, declared the job done. Yet the American frontier
persists, its needs largely invisible. Today’s task is to
recognize its survival and ensure its people and places get fair
treatment. The 19th century census defined the frontier by
population density. A place with under six people per square
mile was frontier -- a figure New York State already exceeded
(barely) in 1790, the census’ first year. Anywhere over that
density was settled land. In its reporting, the census mapped a
north-south line separating the two zones that steadily moved
westward. The 1880 line mostly ran along the 98th meridian and
bulged west in Nebraska halfway across the state. But the 1890
census found no clear edge: settlement mission accomplished.
Contemporary understandings of progress meant the frontier would
be sure to fill. The great historia