Mythic Frontiers ─ Remembering, Forgetting, and Profiting With Cultural Heritage Tourism

“Maher explores the development of the Frontier Complex as he deconstructs the frontier myth in the context of manifest destiny, American exceptionalism, and white male privilege. A very significant contribution to our understanding of how and why heritage sites reinforce privilege.”— Frederick H. Smith, author of The Archaeology of Alcohol and Drinking
 
“Peels back the layer of dime westerns and True Grit films to show how their mythologies are made material. You’ll never experience a ‘heritage site’ the same way again.”—Christine Bold, author ofThe Frontier Club: Popular Westerns and Cultural Power, 1880–1924
 
The history of the Wild West has long been fictionalized in novels, films, and television shows. Catering to these popular representations, towns across America have created tourist sites connecting such tales with historical monuments. Yet these attractions stray from known histories in favor of the embellished past visitors expect to see.

In Mythic Frontiers, Daniel Maher illustrates how aggrandized versions of the past have been used to turn a profit. Examining the imagined frontier town of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Maher warns that disconnecting cultural heritage tourism from history minimizes the devastating consequences of imperialism, racism, and sexism and relegitimizes the privilege bestowed upon white men.
 

Daniel R. Maher is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas–Fort Smith.