Thesis--University of Minnesota. / "Bibliography," p. 174-182.

In contrast to the relatively rapid changes occurring in the modern American army, the period between the end of the War of 1812 and the beginning of the Mexican War offers a definite period for a study of military life when reform came slowly.

This study is an examination of frontier movement and economic development in a portion of the Canadian Shield--Northeastern Ontario--in the period from 1850 to 1914. The process of frontier advance is examined with reference to five key elements: (1) the nature and distribution of resources; (2) external economic and cultural forces; (3) technological change, with emphasis on transportation developments; (4) public policy; and (5) entrepreneurship. The interrelationships of these factors are analysed to explain the spatial distribution of settlement and frontier-core interaction in the Nipissing Lowlands, the Algoma-Sudbury district, and the Timiskaming area. Significant changes occurred in both the process and pattern of frontier advance. The direction of movement in the nineteenth century was foreshadowed by the earlier fur trade, which was followed in some areas by logging and subsidiary agriculture. Inward movements of people and frontier-core interaction were oriented toward Montreal via the Ottawa Valley transportation linkages. In the twentieth century, northward extension of the railway system from southern Ontario gave rise to a dynamic mining frontier. A strong north-south interaction emerged, contrasting with the earlier east-west pattern. Northeastern Ontario, at first almost wholly within the sphere of influence of Montreal, had become part of the economic and cultural hinterland of Toronto by 1914. By 1914 there was established a pattern of land occupance which is still strongly in evidence at present. It was characterized by a high degree of nucleation and a linear orientation of settlement along transportation corridors. The distribution of population and the location of economic activity were usually influenced by the distribution of resources, ease of access, and the presence or absence of government stimulus, entrepreneurial skill, and capital. Economic development was (and still is) based predominantly on the extraction and processing of natural resources for consumption outside the region. Frontier-core interaction was characterized by outbound movements of commodities such as furs, minerals, and wood, either unprocessed or in various stages of manufacture. The introduction of resource-processing industries depended on whether there was less cost to the external consuming area, and to some extent on public policy. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

In contrast to the relatively rapid changes occurring in the modern American army, the period between the end of the War of 1812 and the beginning of the Mexican War offers a definite period for a study of military life when reform came slowly. During the period of study, leaders made few attempts to reform the general structure of the military institution as a social system. On the other hand, many changes can be discerned which improved weaponry and equipment, tactics, supply and administrative procedures, moral guidance, recreational facilities, and pay.

This dissertation reveals a hitherto unrecognized thread of speculative postapocalyptic fantasies underlying nineteenth-century accounts of the American frontier. Many critics have exposed the latent imperialism behind popular myths of primeval wilderness and virgin land; bringing together fictional tales, travel writings, and scientific texts, I show that U.S. authors who enthusiastically celebrated these myths distorted rather than escaped the bounds of history. Their literature results in an uncanny historicism that unsettles narratives of material progress by conflating ancient territorial rupture with a potentially disastrous future. The Illinois prairie of the 1840s thus appeared to Margaret Fuller as a country that has been carefully cultivated by a civilized people, who had been suddenly removed from the earth, with all the works of their hands, and the land given again into nature's keeping. Fuller's notion of hidden destruction behind a vision of natural tranquility was not uncommon. Striving to reconcile their projection of an empty continent with the myriad traces of both Native Americans and prior European settlers, writers such as William Cullen Bryant, James Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau, and Jack London crafted historical narratives that imagined the swift annihilation of entire populations. For them, the blank slate of the American continent was simultaneously a ruined wasteland, and the mythical American Adam was really an American Noah - a patriarch of a new world built on the violent dissolution of the old. U.S. frontier literature between the War of 1812 and the First World War contains postapocalyptic themes like the last man on earth, the lapse into barbarism, and ruin-strewn landscapes. As a key example, I read Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1826) as a narrative of biological extinction that foreshadows his later national apocalyptic allegory The Crater (1847). Similarly, I contend that the industrial ruins a young Thoreau discovered in the Maine woods spurred him to imagine a suddenly depopulated Massachusetts in his journal. These postapocalyptic fantasies often attempted to deny the ongoing presence and property claims of Native Americans by relegating the original inhabitants of American soil to a separate past, yet they also suggested that the United States itself might be subject to imminent catastrophe.

Oregon City lies at the base of Willamette Falls. It was one of the few known points in the Oregon Territory, as the destination for thousands coming overland to lay claim to the acres upon acres of forested land. Presently, Oregon City is known by its proximity to Portland. The two neighboring settlements were considered "long-distance," when on a spring evening in 1889, energy generated from the falls was carried through 14 miles of recently-laid copper wire to power streetlights in downtown Portland's Chapman Square. It was the first ever long-distance transmission of electricity. Oregon City, the oldest incorporated settlement west of the Rocky Mountains, is a town in transition, as it attempts to reinvent itself as something more than an old mill town, building on its natural beauty and historical significance. This essay collection showcases the history and character of Oregon City, highlighting the people and places that have called it home.

The 134-year old Frantz-Dunn House in Hoskins. Oregon is an intact, well-preserved example of rural Gothic architecture in the Willamette Valley. The old farmstead sits on a former Civil War Fort site and represents a link in the history of the region to the larger patterns of expansion in America during the nineteenth century. This study focuses on the family history of three generations of occupants of the historic dwelling. The information was gathered from extant materials and official documents, historic publications, local museum collections, visual observation of the house and from interviews with the relatives of the pioneer families and selected Hoskins residents. Special interest was paid to the interior furnishings and finishes in the interest of the material culture of the house. Interior furnishings were discussed from interview and extant elements. Recommendations for further study of this and other historic houses with focus on the interior material culture of are given. / Graduation date: 2006 / Best scan available for photos.

Thesis (M.A.)--Saint Mary's University, 2007. / Includes abstract. Supervisor: John G. Reid. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 633-722).