Is the Midwest one region or two?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest city in PA is definitely mid-Atlantic.

Kansas and Nebraska and the Dakotas are not the midwest.

Kansas and Nebraska are pretty much the definition of the Midwest imo.

No. The definitive Midwest is Ohio/Michigan/Illinois/Indiana.

Sometimes I think of Ohio as being more East Coast. It probably has to do with time zones.

I grew up in Kansas City, MO. The Midwest to most of us was Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska.

We tended to think of ourselves as the Heartland of America.

Fun fact: Kansas City, Missouri is second only to Rome, Italy for number of fountains in the world. We are known as the City of Fountains. The Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri is modeled after Seville, Spain.

Michigan, Ohio, and most of Indiana are in the same time zone.

True. But Indiana really shouldn't be. Terre Haute, Indiana (87.41W) being in the same time zone as Bangor, Maine (68.77W) is crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest city in PA is definitely mid-Atlantic.

Kansas and Nebraska and the Dakotas are not the midwest.

Kansas and Nebraska are pretty much the definition of the Midwest imo.

No. The definitive Midwest is Ohio/Michigan/Illinois/Indiana.

Sometimes I think of Ohio as being more East Coast. It probably has to do with time zones.

I grew up in Kansas City, MO. The Midwest to most of us was Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska.

We tended to think of ourselves as the Heartland of America.

Fun fact: Kansas City, Missouri is second only to Rome, Italy for number of fountains in the world. We are known as the City of Fountains. The Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri is modeled after Seville, Spain.

Michigan, Ohio, and most of Indiana are in the same time zone.

Yeah, the *Eastern* time zone! Central time is classic Midwest.

I grew up in KCMO too, and PP above is really showing their street cred bringing out that stat about the fountains. You’re required to bring that up to all visitors to KC . I’ve always considered Kansas City to be the Midwest. Much of my extended family growing up lived in Ohio, Michigan, and the greater Chicago area so I spent good portions of my childhood traveling around the Midwest. Culturally, KC felt very similar to Cleveland or Grand Rapids.

My very nuanced take is that the Midwest includes Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and parts of Missouri and Kansas. Kansas City and St. Louis feel very similar to other mid-size Midwest cities. The more rural parts of Missouri, especially in the southern part of the state, starts to feel more culturally Southern, closer to Arkansas or Oklahoma. The parts of Kansas in the greater KCMO metro area feel midwestern, but the western parts of the state start to feel more like the broader Great Plains. I would not view the Dakotas as the Midwest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest city in PA is definitely mid-Atlantic.

Kansas and Nebraska and the Dakotas are not the midwest.

Kansas and Nebraska are pretty much the definition of the Midwest imo.

No. The definitive Midwest is Ohio/Michigan/Illinois/Indiana.

Sometimes I think of Ohio as being more East Coast. It probably has to do with time zones.

I grew up in Kansas City, MO. The Midwest to most of us was Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska.

We tended to think of ourselves as the Heartland of America.

Fun fact: Kansas City, Missouri is second only to Rome, Italy for number of fountains in the world. We are known as the City of Fountains. The Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri is modeled after Seville, Spain.

Michigan, Ohio, and most of Indiana are in the same time zone.

Yeah, the *Eastern* time zone! Central time is classic Midwest.

I grew up in KCMO too, and PP above is really showing their street cred bringing out that stat about the fountains. You’re required to bring that up to all visitors to KC . I’ve always considered Kansas City to be the Midwest. Much of my extended family growing up lived in Ohio, Michigan, and the greater Chicago area so I spent good portions of my childhood traveling around the Midwest. Culturally, KC felt very similar to Cleveland or Grand Rapids.

My very nuanced take is that the Midwest includes Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and parts of Missouri and Kansas. Kansas City and St. Louis feel very similar to other mid-size Midwest cities. The more rural parts of Missouri, especially in the southern part of the state, starts to feel more culturally Southern, closer to Arkansas or Oklahoma. The parts of Kansas in the greater KCMO metro area feel midwestern, but the western parts of the state start to feel more like the broader Great Plains. I would not view the Dakotas as the Midwest.

I'm from Indiana. I remember the first time my buddy and I drove to Colorado. We drove through the night, and our route kept us in Kansas for a long time. I might be wrong, but it was summertime and it seems like the sun went down sometime around St. Louis and came up again around Hays, KS. We'd keep our spirits up by saying "only x miles until Colorado." I don't know what we were expecting -- mountains on the border or something. But, my god were we disappointed. Eastern Colorado is every bit as flat and featureless as western Kansas. To this day, we refer to the part of Colorado east of Denver as "Eastkansas" (rhymes with Arkansas.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:good roundup here: https://presidentlincoln.illinois.gov/Blog/Posts/106/Illinois-History/2021/2/What-is-the-Midwest/blog-post/

i'm a gen xer who grew up in illinois. back when i was growing up, conversationally we considered the midwest to be illinois, indiana, ohio, michigan, wisconsin. the rest we considered to be the great plains. this is the map we "lived" by:



i've also lived in Pittsburgh and by god, NO, that is NOT the midwest.

I grew up in a rust belt midwestern city and have spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh. They seem the same to me. Lots of white ethnic groups, although Pittsburgh is less diverse overall.

[Anonymous]

Pittsburgh is Appalachian.

[Anonymous]

Chicago is the center of the region.

People in Michigan don't think they're in the same region as Nebraska. People in Nebraska don't think they're in the same region as Michigan.

But from the Chicago vantage point including both makes sense.

[Anonymous]

It’s Amazing How Many Americans Think They Live in the Midwest When They Don’t

“States including Wyoming, Montana and Arkansas have a surprising number of citizens who say they’re Midwesterners. Some locals are baffled: ‘Who ARE you people?’

Everyone knows places such as Ohio and Minnesota are solidly in the Midwest. But a recent poll finds that the Midwest is more a state of mind than just a place you can point to on a map. 
People from Colorado (42%), Oklahoma (66%) and even Wyoming (54%) think they live in the Midwest, according to data from Emerson College Polling and the Middle West Review, a journal published by the University of Nebraska Press. Nearly a third of Kentuckians and a little over a quarter of Arkansans say the same.”
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/midwest-u-s-survey-west-geography-97c18794

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:good roundup here: https://presidentlincoln.illinois.gov/Blog/Posts/106/Illinois-History/2021/2/What-is-the-Midwest/blog-post/

i'm a gen xer who grew up in illinois. back when i was growing up, conversationally we considered the midwest to be illinois, indiana, ohio, michigan, wisconsin. the rest we considered to be the great plains. this is the map we "lived" by:



i've also lived in Pittsburgh and by god, NO, that is NOT the midwest.

I grew up in Indiana. The Midwest is the Orange area of the map which was the Northwest Territory, established in 1787, and consisting of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin (parts of MN too). The midwest has a lot of common cultural background with significant German settlement in the early 1800s for farming after access expanded with the opening of the Erie canal. There is also a lot of common geography due to glaciation, ancient mountains, and the great lakes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Territory

Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri can be considered midwestern in character because a lot of settlement from the Midwest shifted over the Mississippi river and there is still a lot of common geographical and cultural commonality.

North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas are not midwestern at all. They are plains states. Very different geography, settlement patterns, and cultural background. It doesn't matter what the census bureau currently defines it to be. The idea of the "middle" of the country kept changing as borders moved westward. Midwest isn't a current geographical description, it's a historical and cultural region.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chicago is the center of the region.

People in Michigan don't think they're in the same region as Nebraska. People in Nebraska don't think they're in the same region as Michigan.

But from the Chicago vantage point including both makes sense.

Omaha and eastern Nebraska is extremely Midwest

The clear dividing line is the 100th degree longitude where there is a drastic shift in rainfall/westher/soil/ag-farming patterns

[Anonymous]

Who cares? All of it is flyover country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it one region or are the two halves (Great Lakes and Great Plains) fundamentally different?

Great Lakes states (East North Central division): IL, IN, MI, OH, WI

Great Plains states (West North Central division): IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD

I have lived in the mid west for many years and never considered the dakotas a part of it.

I did too, but I do consider the Dakotas part of it. South Dakota turns into the West at some point, though.

what is Colorado Or Oklahoma considered?

OK is the Plains.
Most of CO is the Mountain West. Of course 1/3 of the state's area is Plains, but few people care about that part.

OK is a Southwest state. Along with Texas & Ark

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

People in Michigan don't think they're in the same region as Nebraska. People in Nebraska don't think they're in the same region as Michigan

100% wrong

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares? All of it is flyover country.

Thanks for your comment. It really helped move the discussion forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares? All of it is flyover country.

Was going to say the same thing: one region, flyover

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

People in Michigan don't think they're in the same region as Nebraska. People in Nebraska don't think they're in the same region as Michigan

100% wrong

100% right. No one from Detroit including myself considers Nebraska as part of the same region. My colleague from Nebraska — and my husband’s family who were original European settlers in Nebraska do not think of Michigan as part of the same region.

Generally states that were part of the Louisiana purchase that people consider midwestern are actually plains states. Listen to weather reports. That’s how they distinguish them from the former (north) states (eg, Michigan) — that is, the ones generally east of The Mississippi River. After the Louisiana Purchase, those states became the Midwest bc they were between the new West and the East.