Understanding western places : the historical geographer's view / William Wyckoff -- An inescapable range, or the ranch as everywhere / Paul F. Starrs -- Land tenure : the spatial musculature of the American West / John B. Wright -- National significance : representation of the West in the National Park System / Lary M. Dilsaver -- Mormon Wests : the creation and evolution of an American region / Richard H. Jackson -- Mex-America : from margin to mainstream / Terrence W. Haverluk -- Native America : the indigenous West / Akim D. Reinhardt -- Narrating imperial adventure : Isabella Bird's travels in the nineteenth-century American West / Karen M. Morin -- The return of the one-armed bandit : gambling and the West / Pauliina Raento -- Magical realism : the West as spiritual playground / Peter Goin -- "Good, by god, we're going to Bodie!" : ghost towns and the American West / Dydia Delyser -- Where the cowboy rides away : mythic places for western film / Gary J. Hausladen.