building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

the true “line” of change. The importance of the relationship between man and the
wilderness proved fundamental to harmonise the ideas that led to the creation of
the Conservation Movement and to the affirmation of interest to protect naturalist
scenarios and contexts [Figure 128].
The first men to enter into contact with the wild regions of the West were explorers
and hunters, who were followed by the mass of farmers and those who were
looking to make an easy fortune. The explorers of the first half of the century, such
as Alexander Mackenzie (1764‐1820), who attempted to find the North‐West
passage in 1789, or Lewis and Clark, had various kinds of scientific purposes.
The main reason for the expeditions was to explore the territories in order to make
reliable topographical maps, especially measurements. Complementary interests of
the expeditions were concerned with botany, geology and the study of the Indian
tribes. The explorers were funded by politics (the expedition by Lewis and Clark was
actively sponsored by Jefferson) and supported by the army. For this reason they
had to report on the economic potential of the areas they crossed, find the easiest
roads to cross the interior towards the Pacific coast and assess the presence of
foreign colonies (especially French).
Later, after the 1850s, the expeditions became decidedly more scientific and
military in tone, and expert photographers joined the expeditions to play a
fundamental role in the process to construct the nation. The spectacular landscapes
of the desert and canyons, the Niagara Falls and the sequoias of the Yosemite Valley
became the icons of the varied, natural scenes of America. Not by chance did these
images identify the United States both as a nation and as a cultural entity reflected
in them, whereas they only later became tourist symbols for their respective states.
We know much less about the so‐called Mountain Men, the first pioneers who lived
in log cabins and survived by hunting in order to trade skins. These men were the
only points of contact between the unexplored territories, the true area of the
frontier, and the civilised settlements on the Atlantic coast.
Of all the stories of the frontier, the one that became a legend was about Ashley’s
Hundred, who met in 1822 in St. Louis and under the guidance of William Henry
Ashley (?‐1838) left for the source of the River Mississippi. They organised a
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