Why are western U.S. states shaped so different than eastern U.S. states?

Question

most of the western states have straighter, more squared borders and eastern states are more oddly shaped in general.

Answer 1

America was colonised from the East.

The eastern states were gradually populated, leading to small states with irregular borders based on natural boundaries like rivers.

When they opened up the west, they just drew big straight lines on a map to decide the state borders.

Answer 2

1. Eastern States were more populated.

2. Eastern States were still using England's "Metes and Bounds" system to determine state boundaries (e.g. "from that river to that mountain") and had to work around personal property lines as well.

1.  Western states were less populated.

2.  Western states used a "Township and Range" survey system which divided the government land into squares (e.g. "from 30° N to 35° N and 180° W to 185° W" instead of using the old Metes and Bounds system used in the east.

3.  The US Government offered smaller grids at no cost to anyone who would settle them.

Therefore, the Eastern states are smaller and jagged shaped while the Western states are larger and more square.

Answer 3

Geographically based borders using mountain ranges and rivers as natural borders.

Answer 4

It's mostly a matter of terrain as well as based on transportation technology.

In the early years of the colonization of the North American continent, water travel was the leading form. It was much easier to use rivers as roads than it was to go through forrests and over mountains. There were not any roads in those days outside of towns, and between them. Rivers are the natural borders of many eastern  and midwest states.

The landscape in the states west of the Mississippi River is very flat and open, so borders were determined by surveying - between certain lines of latitude / longitude, with an occasional river thrown in for good measure. California, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Washington have borders that are in part defined by the terrain.

Answer 5

Western states were carved up from larger territories, and lack rivers or lakes on their borders; plus the original governors of the East were important peeps in the English Empire and they grabbed up as much land as they could.