Where does the midwest begin and end? I have heard the following cities being called part of the Midwest by coastal types but am not sure if they know what they are talking about.
I have heard numerous people refer to Pittsburgh, Denver, Cleveland, Omaha, Salt Lake City and Buffalo as the "Midwest". Are any of those cites "midwest"?
What city does the midwest begin with and where does it end?
I don't consider Rust Belt cities like Detroit, Pittsburgh or Cincinnati Midwest, I consider it Great lakes or Rust Belt. Colorado, Utah, and Idaho are "Mountain West" sorts not midwest. Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, and parts of Texas.
I think cities in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Iowa, and maybe Kentucky and Kansas are midwest cities. I would add Pittsburgh to the list. I think that Minnesota and Wisconsin are Upper Midwest.
I think cities in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Iowa, and maybe Kentucky and Kansas are midwest cities. I would add Pittsburgh to the list. I think that Minnesota and Wisconsin are Upper Midwest.
I think cities in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Iowa, and maybe Kentucky and Kansas are midwest cities. I would add Pittsburgh to the list. I think that Minnesota and Wisconsin are Upper Midwest.
I would also consider these states as Midwest. Minnesota is definitely upper Midwest but it is Midwest. I am of the opinion that these states are beautiful. I absolutely love the nature there. I think I will visit Minnesota in summer once again. Just love it there.
I've been on both coasts. From a coastal view, I'd say anything E of the Cascade/Sierras and W of the Appalachians is "Midwest".
That said, I now live in the Midwest (Central Illinois). I'd say the E border of the Midwest is somewhere in Ohio; the W border somewhere in Eastern Colorado; and the S border at about the MO-AR line, or else the Ohio River. I consider Cincinnati Eastern, but others would say it's Midwest, and a few say it's "The South".
I'd also say the Midwest extends up into Canada: Winnipeg, Regina, and so-forth.
I don't consider Denver Midwestern, but Seattleites might argue. After all, it's East of the Rockies. I consider places like Wilkes-Barre, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, etc. as Eastern, but from a Manhattanite they would probably consider it Midwest.
Although St. Louis is definitely Midwest, St. Louis seems to be quite Eastern. Baseball is big. There are row houses. There is lots of industry.
Gets a little muddy. Does a place like Wichita have the same Midwestern qualities as a place like Milwaukee?
The boundaries could arguably stretch from Kansas to Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh embodies certain characteristics of Midwestern cities), but nobody on SSP has ever agreed on regional boundaries/characteristics/qualities/etc., so its kinda pointless anyway.
Whenever this is brought up, it's always important to remind folks that the Midwest includes both the Great Lakes and the Great Plains; it spans both sides of the Mississippi. It includes a state as heavily industralized a Michigan, ot a state as heavily agricultural as Kansas. It spans the Old Northwest (Great Lakes) to the Old West (Great Plains); Ohio is just as "Midwest" as Nebraska and vice versa. Even then, not every part of these states are "Midwest" just as there are some "Midwest" portions of some states bordering the Midwest. The question of the definition of the Midwest is not an either/or proposition.
As for the examples of Pittsburgh, Denver, Cleveland, Omaha, Salt Lake City and Buffalo, I'd say that Pittsburgh is neither Midwestern in culture nor geography, Denver is practically at the foot of the Rockies, so geographically I'd give them to the Moutain West as I would culturally. Omaha is most definitely Midwestern in every since of the word. SLC, no way, and Buffalo is very similar in culture to every other city along the Great Lakes.
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You won't find a Pittsburgher alive who considers his/her city "Midwest". It's usually used as a term of derision by Philadelphians who can't be troubled to travel west of Lancaster.
To me, the Midwest is mostly made up of areas in the US where most land is under cultivation without general irrigation. So, the NE boundary is Cleveland, down to Columbus, Dayton, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Lincoln, Bismarck, to the Canadian border. Areas in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota that are not agricultural are usually called "upper Midwest." I think the shared economic, cultural, political and linguistic (etc) characteristics of Midwest cities is drawn more from the land use, heavy ag industries, lack of broad natural spaces, German-Scandinavian immigration, and postindustrial landscapes. This area is defined by the Great Lakes, since those are the remnants of the glaciers that ground the Midwest like a rolling pin.
The South is the mountainous/hilly area south of this; the Plains extend to the Rockies/Intermountain West (with its own divisions); East coast is on the Appalachian fall line eastward; the South and the Appalachians share some characteristics into Southern PA. I dont know upstate NY at all to know what's going on there. Buffalo might also be called a Midwestern outpost, but Pittsburgh is the capital of Appalachia, and not Midwestern.
I've always thought of the Midwest as being the following:
Illinois
Iowa
Wisconsin
Minnesota
North Dakota
South Dakota
Northern half of Missouri
Nebraska
Kansas
Central Oklahoma
North Central Texas (e.g., DFW area)
It's not really very cut and dried, though, and certainly debatable.
Having lived in both Michigan and Ohio, I've always considered myself midwestern. However, after living outside the 'midwest', I realized I had to identify myself as from the Great Lakes, or else people would think I grew up on some farm in the middle of the plains.
Quote:
Originally Posted by brickell
As an outsider, this pretty much matches my my idea of the Midwest.
I'd throw in St. Louis and accept that Pittsburgh is probably more Appalachia than Midwestern.
Having lived in both Michigan and Ohio, I've always considered myself midwestern. However, after living outside the 'midwest', I realized I had to identify myself as from the Great Lakes, or else people would think I grew up on some farm in the middle of the plains.
Big Ten map??
I just noticed the link as well, haha. Not for long if expansion comes to fruition! Re: rutgers, Uconn, syracuse, texas....
To me, I consider the states in blue to be the Mideast. East of there is the Appalachia & the Northeast. South of there is the South central. Everything between the blue states west of the Mississippi, north of Texas and east of the Rockies is the Midwest.
So the states in blue are the Mideastern states and everything southwest of those, which lie west of the Mississippi, north of Texas and east of the Rockies is the Midwest.
I'd divide the country up something close to this:
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Last edited by SnyderBock; Apr 16, 2010 at 8:26 AM.
I'm 3 months late to this party but wanted to add a little perspective from someone who grew up in the "west" and only later, after living in Boston, Tampa and Milwaukee came to understand the geographical and cultural significance of it all. A westerner is very different than a midwesterner. We don't have an intuitive sense for the power and amazing brevity of a summer storm front. We don't grow up amid fields of corn. Humidity is something other people talk about. Our rivers are your streams or canals. On the other hand, we spend a significant portion of our lives above 4000'. Your mountains aren't even our hills. 12" of water a year is a good year. 90 degrees feels OK here. Most of our lakes are reservoirs. We can ski and mountain climb by middle school. The soft sputtering of nighttime sprinklers is second nature. I wouldn't necessarily call it western pride, because our issues and problems are just as prevelant as any other region, but if you grew up in the west and have later lived for a significant amount of time in a different region of the US, you know you are a "westerner." In my mind, the midwest ends at Roosevelt Nat'l Park, Black Hills, the Rocky Mountain front range and then who knows what happens in Texas... I'm all about complexity and ambiguity, but with this issue there is little debate. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to spend a little time in Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona or Nevada. You'll figure it out. It's different here.
I'm 3 months late to this party but wanted to add a little perspective from someone who grew up in the "west" and only later, after living in Boston, Tampa and Milwaukee came to understand the geographical and cultural significance of it all. A westerner is very different than a midwesterner. We don't have an intuitive sense for the power and amazing brevity of a summer storm front. We don't grow up amid fields of corn. Humidity is something other people talk about. Our rivers are your streams or canals. On the other hand, we spend a significant portion of our lives above 4000'. Your mountains aren't even our hills. 12" of water a year is a good year. 90 degrees feels OK here. Most of our lakes are reservoirs. We can ski and mountain climb by middle school. The soft sputtering of nighttime sprinklers is second nature. I wouldn't necessarily call it western pride, because our issues and problems are just as prevelant as any other region, but if you grew up in the west and have later lived for a significant amount of time in a different region of the US, you know you are a "westerner." In my mind, the midwest ends at Roosevelt Nat'l Park, Black Hills, the Rocky Mountain front range and then who knows what happens in Texas... I'm all about complexity and ambiguity, but with this issue there is little debate. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to spend a little time in Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona or Nevada. You'll figure it out. It's different here.
Yeah.
Denver isn't midwest. At all.
Sure it sits on the plains, but the culture seems to be western.
According to this, I've lived in 8 of those regions!
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