Stegner's "Geography of Hope"

In his "Wilderness Letter" (Dec. 3, 1960), Wallace Stegner proposed that the West was built on and American history was shaped by a "geography of hope." The newness of the western frontier gave pioneers the opportunity for a better future. Stegner argued in his letter that the wilderness still present in the West represents an idea, as well as a place, that can benefit those who experience it. In his later works, however, Stegner noted that the destruction of the West endangers many natural resources including his "geography of hope."

In the "Introduction" to Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs (WBSLS), Stegner wrote that "the West at large is hope's native home, the youngest and freshest of America's regions." (p. xv) From the beginning of western expansion across America, pioneers were driven by discovery of the unknown, and the hope of finding a better place. As success stories (both real and embellished) traveled back east from these first westerners, hope was escalated into excitement and action in the form of more pioneers moving westward.

Stegner distinguished between the "varieties and degrees of hope" found in these early travelers: "Visionary expectation was a great energizer of the westward movement...But exaggerated, uninformed, unrealistic, greedy expectation has been a prescription for disappointment that the West has carried to the corner drugstore too many times." (p. xvi) This is exemplified by the boom and bust cycle that has plagued the West throughout history.

Stegner warned that hope should not be mistaken for the "arrogant pipedreams" of western engineers who fight the aridity of the West in an attempt to create their ideal "Garden of the World." (WBSLS Intro p. xvii)

In his "Wilderness Letter", Stegner wrote that the remaining wilderness of the West can offer hope to those who experience its naturalness in contrast to the technological world in which they live day to day. He added, "The reminder and reassurance that it is still there is good for our spiritual health even if we never once in ten years set foot in it."

In his letter, Stegner proposed the value of hope in relation to more accepted benefits of the western wilderness, such as recreation. He wrote, "What I speak for is not so much the wilderness uses, valuable as those are, but the wilderness idea, which is a resource in itself."

Stegner's "geography of hope" is not just a place, but also an idea, both historical and spiritual. Americans are as much a part of the idea, as it is an integral part of American history. In the conclusion of his "Wilderness Letter", Stegner argued that the wilderness is the key to restoring hope in Americans: "For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope."

In "Striking the Rock," an essay in WBSLS, Stegner took a more cynical view of the "geography of hope." After deluging the reader with instance upon instance of western wilderness destruction, he admitted that in its current state the West has little to be hopeful about. Physical destruction including damming rivers, slashing/burning plains, mining, and overgrazing all leave scars on the landscape and diminish opportunity in the West. Stegner wrote that "the West is no more the Eden that I once thought it than the Garden of the World that the boosters and engineers tried to make it; and that neither nostalgia now boosterism can any longer make a case for it as the geography of hope." (p.98)

On a lighter note, Stegner saw a glimmer of hope residing in the literature of current western writers. Looking at these writers' works, he said he felt a "surge of inextinguishable western hope...the feeling in a football game, when helplessness begins to give way to confidence." (xxiii) The West continues to seek out a balance between the mirage of hope and the instable conflicts of environmental and economical ventures.

Rebecca L. Ash
JRL 391
3/2/99