ABSTRACT
The visual values of a natural area are both a state of mind and a set of physical dimensions. This chapter explores important changes which made desert regions more visually desirable and accessible. "Spiritual" or psychological risks of entering alien desert landscapes were too high. As desert tourism came into its own in the first half of the twentieth century, there were other factors than the aesthetic. Desert environments are the most distant from civilized environments, and thus could supply perceptual models for an environmental aesthetic. Theodore Roosevelt's infectious enthusiams gave wilderness beauty a wider acceptability, integrated with his emphasis on "the free, open, pleasantest, and healthiest life in America." Americans were proud of western expansion and the civilization it helped to build. Growing disillusionment with American industrial society increased interest in the value of wilderness. Reports of the American west reinforced negative attitudes about desert regions.
