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'Turner's thesis entitled "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" proposed that the American frontier explained why America developed in a distinctly different manner than its European progenitors. He believed the fluid frontier situation coupled with a population facing new and unpredictable problems, not only forced them to be leaders, but also provided a variety of opportunities. He asserted that these frontiers---four distinct frontiers are looked at, namely fur trading, mining, ranching, and farming/urban-provided a type of safety valve of opportunity which prevented the country from developing a class consciousness, and encountering an acute class struggle. The thesis proposed that the frontier also produced democracy of a uniquely American kind. It is this latter contention we will examine in this paper. We will consider, first, a brief description of Turner's ideas, and the characteristics of each frontier, and then whether evidence exists to confirm or deny Turner's thesis as a basis for our history, emphasizing this most often criticized contention regarding the evolution of democracy.

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