Stretching from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains westward to the Sierra Nevada of California, to the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest and into Alaska, is the largest area of sparse population in America. Its low average population density is the key identifying feature of this region. There is much variation in other elements of the territory's geography. Portions have rugged terrain interspersed with a series of plateaus, many of which contain extensive flat areas. The population of the region is mostly of European origin, although Hispanic-Americans and American Indians are found in significant proportions in the south. Irrigated agriculture is important in some areas, as is ranching, whereas in other areas, lumbering, tourism, and mining are dominant. This massive expanse of land contains some of America's most strikingly scenic portions. The impact of humans on the region, although locally important, has been overshadowed to a great degree by the varied splendors of the natural environment.
An element of the region's physical geography is its ruggedness. Most of the mountains of the eastern United States appear rounded and molded; the ranges of the West present abrupt, almost vertical slopes, and the peaks frequently appear as jagged edges pointing skyward. This difference is due partly to age. Most of the western mountains, although by no means all of them, are substantially younger than the eastern ranges. Thus erosion, which results in an eventual smoothing of the land surface, has been active for a much shorter time.
The Pleistocene, the carving done by mountain glaciers did much to form the topography of the interior West, and remnants of the glaciers can still be found in parts of the region. Most widespread in the Pacific mountains of southern Alaska, smaller glaciers are found as far south as the central Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Sierra Nevada of California.
Most of the Empty Interior is occupied by plateaus rather than mountains. Probably the most scenically dramatic portion of this section is the Colorado Plateau along the middle Colorado River in Utah and Arizona. The Empty Interior supports a growing wildlife population that includes the bison (buffalo), the North American elk, the pronghorn antelope, the wild bear, the white-tailed deer, and the wild turkey.
In the state of Nevada, various government agencies control almost 90 percent of all land. Although the percentages are lower elsewhere, the basic pattern of governmental predominance is found throughout the Empty Interior. It is not surprising that so much of the land remains in government hands. This area and Alaska were the final regions to be occupied by any substantial numbers of people, and federal programs of land distribution, designed to encourage agricultural use, were not relevant because little of the region held any real agricultural promise. The Latter-Day Saints, or, more commonly, the Mormons, were established in upstate New York in 1830. The church and its followers were attacked repeatedly, both verbally and physically, for what were considered their "unusual" beliefs. The Mormons moved several times, searching for a place to practice their religion. Many Mormons, often on foot, pushed into the West, where they hoped to create an independent Mormon state (which substantially failed). Some of the largest American Indian reservations are found here, especially in northern Arizona and New Mexico. Also, some of the country's largest bombing and gunnery ranges, as well as its only atomic bomb testing facility, are found here. The population is sparse, and alternative demands on the land are not great.
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