Empty Quarter (North America)

The Empty Quarter is a name given to the historically sparsely populated regions within the western United States and Canada. The term was popularized by Joel Garreau in his 1981 book The Nine Nations of North America.

The Empty Quarter includes most of Alaska, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and western Colorado, as well as the eastern portions of Oregon, California, Washington, all of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Northern Canada, northern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, British Columbia east of the Coast Ranges, and the westernmost fringes of North Dakota and South Dakota.

In the book, Garreau described The Empty Quarter as a region with an economy still largely based on resource extraction, with mining, oil, cattle, and railroads historically playing a large role. The Empty Quarter, together with some of The Breadbasket, comprises what is commonly thought of as the American Old West. He described the region today as one of boomtowns rising and falling with the fortunes of the energy industry, and placed the "capital" of the nation in Denver, Colorado, with other major cities in the region including Salt Lake City, Utah; Boise, Idaho; Spokane, Washington; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Anchorage, Alaska; Las Vegas, Nevada; Calgary-Edmonton Corridor; Regina, Saskatchewan; and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Population growth, suburbanization, the growth of the high-tech industry in some locations like Salt Lake City and Boise, and an increase in tourism in recent years have been changing the character of this region immensely. The region is characterized by being the most arid of the United States and Canada, which sets it apart from the western coastal region as well as from the Breadbasket.

The Empty Quarter is also notable as the region of the United States and Canada with the largest remaining wilderness areas, the highest percentage of land under the protection of agencies such as the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service, and many of the best-loved National Parks and other natural features. Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Yosemite National Park, Glacier National Park, and Denali National Park are all located within The Empty Quarter, as are such attractions as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the "polar bear capital of the world", Churchill, Manitoba.

The Empty Quarter is bounded on the west by Ecotopia (the coastal regions of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and northern California); on the south by Mexamerica (southern California, southern Arizona, most of New Mexico); and on the east by the (northern) Ontario/Quebec border, and The Breadbasket (Nebraska, the Dakotas, southern Manitoba, eastern Colorado, extending east through much of the American Midwest.)