Historical markers in the western United States: regional and cultural contrasts

ABSTRACT

The American West evokes many images in the minds of both its citizens and visitors. Historical markers are one way that regional historical identity has been preserved and displayed over time. Tourists interested in exploring the heritage of local areas can thus find a wealth of valuable site-specific information in these markers. Western states have 1000s of these official landmarks, which commemorate an event, a town, an old building, important individuals, or other past geographies. We compare the topical themes found in these markers among eleven states and the culture regions identified by Donald W. Meinig (1972). American wests: Preface to a geographical interpretation. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 62(2), 159–184. We find that the regional historical classifications of these extracts of public memory have some correlations to Meinig’s identified cultural elements. Locals and tourists in the American West, who make the effort to stop and appreciate the historical markers they encounter, will have a more informed view of the cultural heritage of this region. This regional view can be valuable not only to tourists, but also to heritage promotion organizations, who can use large-scale classifications, such as those produced in this research, to identify how their state or region has been characterized by those who have erected markers in order to solidify collective memory.

KEYWORDS:

• Historical markers
• western United States
• culture regions
• historical landscape
• collective memory

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the reviewers and Journal of Heritage Tourism editor Dr. Dallen Timothy for their constructive feedback and encouragement. We also appreciate editing work by Laurie Weisler of the Brigham Young University (BYU) Department of Geography, research assistance by my wife Lori Otterstrom and BYU students Joel Warren, Emily Pomeroy, Kyle Davis, and Diana Hood, and funding generously provided by BYU's College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences and Redd Center for Western Studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Samuel M. Otterstrom is professor of geography and associate dean in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences at Brigham Young University. He studies historical and contemporary population, settlement, and cultural geographies.

James A. Davis is associate professor of geography at Brigham Young University. He teaches and researches in the areas tourism and cultural geographies.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Brigham Young University.