Creating the American West: boundaries and borderlands

Introduction: the significance of state boundaries

A little patch of ground: the precedents for western state boundaries

The fairest portion of our union: early boundaries in the trans-Mississippi West

On the extreme frontier: the western Arkansas boundary

Blood will be shed: the Missouri-Iowa boundary

Nature has marked out the boundaries: the Oregon country boundaries

A state bordering upon anarchy: the California-Nevada boundary

Two distinct civilizations: the New Mexico-Colorado boundary

Let us divide: the Dakota boundaries.