The First American West was The Ohio River Valley of the period dating 1750-1820 ........The visual riches of this region stunned the trappers and explorers of the day in the same way that the Rocky Mountains were to later awe-struck the Mountain Men of the Post Lewis & Clark era ..............The Ohio River Valley had Rivers that held schools of carp, catfish, perch, and sturgeon...... Flocks of tens of thousands of passenger pigeons darkened the sky overhead........ Bison roamed in great herds, and bears, wolves, and wildcats flourished in the woods and ravines.

 

The first explorations of the trans-Appalachian West by European Americans came in the late seventeenth century. Virginia Colonel Abram Wood made the earliest recorded visit to what would become Kentucky in 1654. At that time and for more than a century that followed, France claimed the entire region to the west of the Appalachians. French outposts were established on the Wabash, Illinois, Mississippi and other western rivers. In 1729, French traders and groups of Delaware, Shawnee, and Mingo established Lower Shawneetown in Ohio. French hegemony remained in place until 1763, when France's defeat in the French and Indian War brought the whole vast western territory into British hands. Early descriptions of the trans-Appalachian West conveyed the astonishing richness of the natural landscape and the life it supported. Western explorers and the information they collected were of immediate use to American government officials and land development companies, but their reports were also an important factor in developing European interest in the West. English and French editions of books describing travels in the West conveyed the wonder and promise of the new territory and encouraged European observers to follow Americans westward over the mountains.

Early European American travelers west of the Appalachians were fascinated by the diversity of western plant and animal species. Oaks, walnuts, hickories, maples, and elms were present in abundance, as were tulip trees, Kentucky coffee trees, honey locusts, persimmons, and sumacs. Many of the larger trees could grow to spectacular size. George Washington, on a trip to the Ohio valley, noted a huge sycamore tree at the mouth of the Kanawha River that was forty-five feet in circumference. The variety of western wildlife was equally impressive. Rivers held schools of carp, catfish, perch, and sturgeon. Flocks of tens of thousands of passenger pigeons darkened the sky overhead. Bison roamed in great herds, and bears, wolves, and wildcats flourished in the woods and ravines.
Hunters had no difficulty stalking these and other native game including turkeys, geese, elk, deer, and squirrels. After a hunting trip to the West in 1750, Dr. Thomas Walker reported, "We killed in the journey 13 buffaloes, 8 elks, 53 bears, 20 deers, 4 wild geese, and about 150 wild turkeys, besides small game. We might have killed 3 times as much meat if we had wanted it."
Among the earliest travelers to the West were professional and amateur scientists interested in collecting and cataloging specimens of plants and animals and monitoring patterns of weather and climate. Ornithologist Alexander Wilson and his contemporary John James Audubon focused on collecting, describing, and depicting the rich variety of western bird life, including species not seen on the eastern seaboard.  Some observers like Thomas Jefferson and Jonathan Williams were absorbed by the dramatic natural landscape and the atmospheric and environmental conditions it produced. Other students of the West were scientists like Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, professor of botany and natural science at Transylvania University, who recorded animal life of all types and devoted particular attention to newly discovered varieties of fish observed in western waters.