The beginnings of the West date from 1850. Further back the census reports do not present statistics that can be compared for valuable purposes, with present standards, although as early as 1840 there were nine hundred thousand people along the western shore of the Mississippi in Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, and Missouri. These states were long on the firing line of American civilization, and their people subsisted by general farming, or by outfitting ox-train merchandise caravans for Santa Fé and Chihuahua, or by outfitting and trading with pioneer settlers _en route_ to Oregon, or gold seekers flocking to California. Jim Bridger put up in southwestern Wyoming in 1843 the first post for the purpose of trading built west of the Mississippi River, and its establishment marked the beginning of the era of emigration to the Far West. Until a comparatively recent period a goodly portion of the public domain lying west of the Missouri River, and comprising perhaps five hundred thousand square miles, was mapped as the "Great American Desert" and they who penetrated its solitudes and returned unscathed to "civilization" were regarded with that curiosity that pertains to a traveler who has visited an unknown land. With the upbuilding of the country and the spread of knowledge of its capabilities, the title of "Great American Desert" has been swept away, and the colored maps that illustrate the books of the twelfth census, regard the white portion as "unsettled area." This includes a considerable area in every state and territory west of the ninety-ninth degree of longitude. East of that line the only white portion is in southeastern Florida. Progress in the half-century comprehended in this brief review has been remarkable and the present position of the West is strikingly shown in the appended statement, which represent its percentages of the total for the United States for the different items tabulated. In a few instances comparisons are made with 1890 and 1850: