Crafting and Consuming an American Sonoran Desert: Global Visions, Regional Nature and National Meaning

Abstract

From the 1840s to 1950s, interpretations of nature played a central role in the defining and enculturating the Sonoran Desert into the American nation. Written works and physical nature like plants became an archive for cultural interpretations of the region. Scientific descriptions of nature became stories of place as they were consumed. Proxy landscapes like national monuments became the spaces for demonstrating these stories. Throughout the period of this study, a constant give and take between regional nature and global arid lands shaped the national interpretations used to describe regional nature within the American nation-state. This work follows the production and consumption of meaning and the definition of a desert region.