Historian Fredrick Jackson Turner has become synonymous with the American West thanks to his famous "Frontier Thesis." In his essay Turner lays out evidence that when the 1890 census stated that the frontier was closed, Turner believed that this meant that this was the end of the early part of American history. He stated: “What the Mediterranean Sea was to the Greeks, breaking the bonds of custom, offering new experiences, calling forth new institutions and activities, that, and even more, the ever-retreating frontier has been directly to the United States, and for more remote European nations. And now, four centuries after the discovery of America, at the end of one hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier is gone, and with its disappearance the first period of American history has come to an end." Turner also believed that the West was what made America a country unto itself. Fredrick Turner was one of the first people to start writing about the frontier from a historical perspective. The thoughts about the West in his thesis are very similar to what the average person might think about while watching a Western movie. In some respects Turner wasn't wrong on all counts and perhaps not wrong at all, he could have simply polished the narrative to give it a better sheen than what actually happened. The point he seeks to make is that by the time of the Revolution America was still in many ways a British entity, those who were colonists under the Crown identified themselves as English until the Revolution where there was a change of heart, others however they remained faithful. to the Crown. It is not until Thomas Jefferson signs the Louisiana Purchase where the frontier goes from the settlers' backyard essentially to the deep... middle of paper... Oosevelt's case was a man who went west kill a buffalo but became a cowboy. He believed in the myth of the frontier and proved himself to be that person, but not without difficulty. The same can be said of the Mormons who saw the West as the new Exodus, just like Moses who led the Jews out of Egypt. The West created a rock for a new religion to thrive. The images of cowboys and pioneers are in the American consciousness because of what Turner said that the West created the American we know today and gave everyone a new unique identity. The part he didn't emphasize enough was the hard times and failures of many of those who looked to the West as a place of hope, whether it was gold, livestock, agriculture or religious freedom. The 1890 census might have declared the frontier closed, but now it was a place that would struggle for its new identity.