The significance of The Far Country as a contribution to the literature of Western history originates in a number of factors.  From its earliest days until the present, the Moab area provided one of the key interfaces between the Mormons and the "gentiles." And today the area is a confrontation point between environmentalists and those who advocate free mobile access to public lands, particularly the national parks of the area.  Moab has also experiences the entire range of Western development in a few short years - from frontier "cow town" to uranium boom town.