The Midwest: one region or two?

[Docere]

Do you see the Midwest as one region - or fundamentally two regions of Great Lakes/Manufacturing Belt and Great Plains/Heartland?

[pj3000]

Like everything, it all depends on whether or not Cincinnati is southern.

[JManc]

Two; Ohio and South Dakota have zero in common.

[Steely Dan]

One region from a Chicago perspective.

Two regions from an Ohio or Nebraska perspective.



Chicago is the lynch pin, the great connector holding it all together, where the great lakes meet and shake hands with the great prairie.

The mother of all interior continental watershed connections.

So we have a very both/and view of this matter.

[James Bond Agent 007]

1 region, 2 subregions.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by JManc

Two; Ohio and South Dakota have zero in common.

One could also say that Washington state and Arizona have zero in common, and yet they're both part of the West.

[Docere]

Maine and New Jersey are pretty different too.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

One could also say that Washington state and Arizona have zero in common, and yet they're both part of the West.

Originally Posted by Docere

Maine and New Jersey are pretty different too.

Your differences are frivolous and stupid. MY differences are important and profound.

[Chef]

The Midwest is America's Balkans. It is either one region or 25. Anyone who answers two doesn't understand it. I don't live in the Great Lakes or the Great Plains. A lot of the Midwest is neither.

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

One could also say that Washington state and Arizona have zero in common, and yet they're both part of the West.

I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone refer to the entire Western half of the country just as "The West" before though.

[202_Cyclist]

As someone on here said before, the Midwest might be our most imprecise geographic term. It stretches from Pittsburgh to the suburbs of Denver.

[202_Cyclist]

Too bad there is no clear demarcation like the sweat tea line, noting the boundary between the north and south.

https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/317-tea-as-a-northsouth-litmus-test/

[Fabricio JF]

Midwest seen from the perspective of an observer with a telescope who achieved radio communication with the location, intended metaphor.

If Chicago were a star, Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Omaha and St. Louis would be planets and the other cities would be satellites, with Columbus being a kind of Ganymede and with the impression that the Dakotas would be a vacuum. .

The selection has to do with the frequency with which cities are projected on the forum and the perspective on these places posted by forumers on another occasion.

[Docere]

How can Fairfax County and El Paso be in the same region? <s>

[Docere]

The Census Bureau splits the Midwest into East North Central and West North Central subdivisions. Basically the former is rust belt and the latter isn't.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Docere

How can Fairfax County and El Paso be in the same region?

They're not, but Miami and El Paso are.

[Docere]

So Kentucky is Northeastern and Iowa is Southern.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by pj3000

They're not, but Miami and El Paso are.

Weird map. Some of the largest cities are not marked (NYC, LA, for example), but many second or third tier ones are. Whoops, I suppose these are state Capitals only.

I never would have classified Kentucky and Maine as falling into the same region, but what do I know?

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by pj3000

They're not, but Miami and El Paso are.

Were the regions recently reorganized? I thought Virginia was part of the southeast?

Virginia in the northeast is very weird because of its central role in the history of the north/south cultural divide.

Edit: Nevermind. Those are not census definitions.

[ChiSoxRox]

That map looks like the USGS trying to center on specific geographical features rather than any cultural delineation. Region 1 is the northern half of the Appalachians, so Kentucky gets pinned to the Virginias. Region 3 gathers the Great Lakes states, Region 4 is the rest of the Mississippi River after the Great Lakes states are taken, Region 7 is getting the Rockies, so on.

Also hello Klamath County, Oregon.