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Characterizing the North American West is an attempt to hit a moving target. Ranching, aridity, mountains, New Western growth, and industrial resource extraction have all been named as defining features of Western communities. How these community identities are constructed and represented is especially interesting when contextualized within the West, whose geography is ambiguous but territorialized, whose character is mythic, and whose narratives are multiple and contradictory. The rural town of Pinedale, Wyoming serves as a case study for the fluidity of community identity in the West as it negotiates three narratives: Old West, New West, and Boomtown. While rooted in the history and myth of the Old West the community responds to New Western changes, all the while being the epicenter for two of the largest natural gas fields in the nation. This study examines the discourse of a community confronting social changes and the signifiers on the landscape of three different but simultaneous identities.
Advisor: | Dorst, John |
Commitee: | Cawley, R. McGreggor, Harty, John P., Roberts, Phil |
School: | University of Wyoming |
Department: | American Studies |
School Location: | United States -- Wyoming |
Source: | MAI 52/02M(E), Masters Abstracts International |
Source Type: | DISSERTATION |
Subjects: | American studies, Geography, Environmental Studies |
Keywords: | Community, Environment, Identity, Natural gas development, North american west, Wyoming |
Publication Number: | 1544639 |
ISBN: | 978-1-303-35448-9 |