This article investigates the role of religion in the economic development of the American West. The Anglo-American frontier in the Middle West, the Mormon settlement in the arid West, and the Japanese community on the West Coast are examined in order to illustrate the organizational consequences of religion upon frontier development. In spite of the differences in doctrine and outlook, Protestantism, Mormonism, and Buddhism alike helped to build communities in the wilderness, which paved the way for economic development. Although Catholicism is not treated in this paper, it must have played a similar role for the Catholic immigrants in the urban wilderness.