This graphically demonstrates Western expansion:

200 years of U.S. population density pic.twitter.com/ceftqcb3MZ

— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) January 3, 2024

Interesting, thanks for posting. Kind of funny to watch, because it is based on census data, there are spots with people that aren't counted...because they aren't yet a state. For example, Texas before 1845, and the same for a lot of the Southwest. Then you have Oklahoma, because apparently they didn't do census on Indian land?

Interesting to me, because it's my part of the world, is to watch the counties in the eastern Texas Panhandle. Most of them peaked in population in the 1930s and 1940s, declining since. Amarillo and Lubbock get denser, but after 1940, the counties to their east get lighter and lighter...

You may need to go to full screen if you want to see this

From Wikipedia, the census of Briscoe County, Texas (Silverton, Quitaque, Caprock Canyons State Park)

1880 12
1900 1,253
1910 2,162
1920 2,948
1930 5,590
1940 4,056
1950 3,528
1960 3,577
1970 2,794
1980 2,579
1990 1,971
2000 1,790
2010 1,637
2020 1,435

Blows my mind that while the population of Texas is about 5x as much as it was in 1930, counties like this one have dropped to 25% of 1930 levels