Gaps, Passes, Notches, and Straits
An evolving list of articles and images that reveal how geography, specifically gaps, passes, notches, and straits, have influenced culture and expansion.
Cumberland Gap versus South Pass: The East or West in Frontier History
The Western Historical Quarterly
"When Frederick Jackson Turner wrote, "Stand at Cumberland Gap and watch the procession of civilization, marching single file .... Stand at South Pass ... a century later and see the same procession . . . ." he was enunciating the nineteenth century's philosophy of the frontier or West. As Turner visualized American history, westward expansion, or the utilization of free and open lands or the developing frontier, explained part of the uniqueness of America. He sought to explain, at least partially, the influence of this phenomenon."
Map of the World by Night
Composite map of the world assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012.
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC
