Which U.S. states do you think are in the Midwest?

[clairecloutier]

A fun geography exercise/quiz:

http://www.vox.com/2016/1/27/10825534/which-states-in-midwest

I'll tell my states if you tell yours!

 

[PDilemma]

Mine was the same as the majority map except that I do not include Michigan and Ohio. About half of Ohio belongs in the Midwest, but certainly not all of it. I was born in Ohio and my entire paternal family is still there. They live in Appalachia. It is not culturally Midwestern at all.

 

[skatingfan5]

I've always thought of the midwestern states as ranging from Ohio on the east to Iowa on the west -- and including Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. I see that my list of only 7 states is much more limited than most. I've thought of the Dakotas, Kansas, and Nebraska as "Great Plains" states and because of its 19th century history as a slave state, I've always thought of Missouri as part of the South -- even though most of it is no further south than Illinois.

 

[Prancer]

Now.....what states are in the Bible Belt? How about the Corn Belt?

And the true killer--what countries constitute the Middle East?

 

[Cachoo]

My relatives in New Jersey think of Ohio as the Midwest. I'm in Kansas and think of Ohio as an eastern state. I think we all managed to agree that Kansas could be in "the heartland."

 

[AxelAnnie]

And how many states are in California? Why is Oklahoma considered the South? It is all confusing. . Did you know that. Put of Mallorca belongs to San Diego?

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

I remember a girl from the United States asked me if I could at least name one state from the mid west when I made a passing reference to it. I don't think she believed that I could (given that I was from Australia and had never been out of the country at that stage)

What's funny is when I said, Iowa, the look of shock on her face was worth it.

How did I know. Having watched Ice Castles and knowing that the main character was from Waverly, Iowa, and that she competed at the Mid Western Sectionals, I kind of put two and two together.

 

[Artistic Skaters]

It's not just people in NJ who think OH is in the Midwest. The U.S. Census Bureau does too.

 

[clairecloutier]

Mine was the same as the majority map except that I do not include Michigan and Ohio. About half of Ohio belongs in the Midwest, but certainly not all of it. I was born in Ohio and my entire paternal family is still there. They live in Appalachia. It is not culturally Midwestern at all.

So @PDilemma, I kind of understand about Ohio. (We have relatives over the Ohio border in the Parkersburg, West Virginia area, so I'm kind of familiar with that culture.) But why do you see Michigan not being in the Midwest? Just curious.

 

[Skittl1321]

My relatives in New Jersey think of Ohio as the Midwest. I'm in Kansas and think of Ohio as an eastern state. I think we all managed to agree that Kansas could be in "the heartland."

When I lived in Ohio we thought we were in the Midwest....

 

[snoopy]

Ohio has/had a steel industry, so I could see that element of it being "east". But the rest of the state north of Columbus is culturally Midwest farmland and small town. I don't know enough about the southern edge to speak to its Appalachian roots but it would make sense. I do feel a bit more comfortable with all my Indiana, Illinois and Iowa customers versus the newers (NY, NJ, New Englanders.)

 

[Prancer]

SW Ohio is Appalachian; I wouldn't say the rest of the state is. if you divide Ohio into pretty much equal quadrants, you get four different accents and four different cultures, which is a unique characteristics of the state.

Ohio is sometimes classified as Eastern because it is a) in the Eastern half of the US and b) the state is divided historically between metes and bounds property lines, which is used on the East Coast and in the eastern half of Ohio and the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), which is used in the Western half of the state. The PLSS is often used as dividing point between the east and Midwest in mapmaking and other related fields, so the state ends being officially classified as Eastern, Midwestern or MidAtlantic, depending on the system.

I consider it Midwest myself, but it's not a hard and fast thing.

 

[HeManSkaterDad]

Born and raised in Iowa and Illinois, which everyone seems to agree is in the midwest, my list was:

• Indiana - No real question about the Hoosier State, only a midwesterns would be proud to be a Hoosier.
• Illinois - Drive from Chicago to St. Louis and see basically one large cornfield, it's definitely midwest.
• Iowa - Another no-brainer, ride the RAGBRAI and you'll get the midwestern hospitality.
• Michigan - Detroit may be a little different, but my feel has always been it is midwestern at heart.
• Wisconsin - Sorry cheeseheads, might as well call it North Illinois.
• Ohio - A little tougher call, as many pointed out, but the majority of it seems midwestern.
• Missouri - A 50/50. St. Louis is very midwestern, as is most of the northern half of the state, but as you go south and west, there becomes much more of a rural south feel.

I did not include Kentucky, Tennessee or Arkansas, because I get a stronger southern feel from them.

I did not include the next 'column' of states, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma as when I think of them, I picture fields of wheat and when I think midwest, I think corn. Yea, I know that is not terribly accurate or scientific, but neither is the designation of midwest.

 

[BlueRidge]

I've always thought of the midwestern states as ranging from Ohio on the east to Iowa on the west -- and including Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. I see that my list of only 7 states is much more limited than most. I've thought of the Dakotas, Kansas, and Nebraska as "Great Plains" states and because of its 19th century history as a slave state, I've always thought of Missouri as part of the South -- even though most of it is no further south than Illinois.

I think this is the mid-20th Century understanding. I got it from my father who was from Michigan and studied related sorts of stuff at Michigan State University. You don't get more midwestern than that!

 

[skatingfan5]

@HeManSkaterDad - You seem to have completely left out Minnesota -- I hope it wasn't intentional!

I think this is the mid-20th Century understanding. I got it from my father who was from Michigan and studied related sorts of stuff at Michigan State University. You don't get more midwestern than that!

That's pretty seriously midwestern -- but I think my state of Illinois (and state university) is also (even if I didn't move here from NJ until I was 10). As you said, a mid-20th c (maybe even 3rd quarter 20th c) understanding. But I just now realized that something else likely informed my list (subconsciously) -- intercollegiate athletic conferences.

For many decades the "Big Ten" conference consisted of state universities in the seven states I named (also one private school, Northwestern). Then in 1990 Penn State joined the conference (making the "Big 10" a bit of a misnomer), but that certainly didn't mean that I (or anyone else) thought of Pennsylvania as part of the Midwest! And Nebraska coming on board five years ago didn't either -- and certainly not Rutgers and Maryland joining in 2014, which ballooned the Big Ten to 14. My understanding of "midwest" -- and of the Big Ten -- seems to be firmly stuck at least a quarter century in the past -- and that's OK with me.

ETA: I just remembered that the Big Ten resisted overtures from Univ. of Missouri ti join, just as my mind resists including that state as part of the midwest.

 

[BlueRidge]

LOL, I grew up with the Atlantic Coast Conference defining my region! I cannot deal with all the changes to college conferences.

What the hell is Pennsylvania anyway? I mean, Philadelphia is East Coast but Pittsburgh?

 

[Impromptu]

So @PDilemma, I kind of understand about Ohio. (We have relatives over the Ohio border in the Parkersburg, West Virginia area, so I'm kind of familiar with that culture.) But why do you see Michigan not being in the Midwest? Just curious.

I'm actually from Parkersburg, WV, then went to college in Ohio. I did my undergraduate at Ohio State, which I definitely consider midwest, then my masters at Ohio University, which always felt more Appalachian.

West Virginia is in a grey zone too. The North considers it South, and the South considers it North.

 

[Susan1]

I'm actually from Parkersburg, WV, then went to college in Ohio. I did my undergraduate at Ohio State, which I definitely consider midwest, then my masters at Ohio University, which always felt more Appalachian.

West Virginia is in a grey zone too. The North considers it South, and the South considers it North.

I've lived in Ohio my whole life and I've never understood why we are considered "midwest". They should have a mideast category for Ohio and Michigan. I kind of think of Indiana as midwest though, after driving to Chicago and seeing nothing but flat fields and farms for miles and miles and miles.

Hey, I've been to Parkersburg, WV! We were spending a long weekend in the Hocking Hills and took a day to go to WV so I could say I'd been in another state. Got a t-shirt at the Blennerhasset Island gift shop, but we got there too late to take a ferry over. We went through Athens/OU on the way there and back. Appalachian? What would be the reasoning for that? Hills? I just consider southern Ohio "out in the country".

 

[gkelly]

I've lived in Ohio my whole life and I've never understood why we are considered "midwest".

Well, when the area was first settled (by English-speaking white people), it was west of the settled areas, so "west" was usually part of the terms used to describe its location.

 

[Moto Guzzi]

My relatives in New Jersey think of Ohio as the Midwest. I'm in Kansas and think of Ohio as an eastern state. I think we all managed to agree that Kansas could be in "the heartland."

I grew up in SE Kansas and am here now at our family farm. I think of Ohio as an eastern state, too.

Some of my former coworkers made fun of me for being from Kansas because we're all a bunch of hayseeds, you know. When we had an office picnic, I wore my "I'm a Kansas girl and I can kick your butt" t-shirt. I probably could have kicked a few of their butts, too.

 

[skatingfan5]

LOL, I grew up with the Atlantic Coast Conference defining my region! I cannot deal with all the changes to college conferences.

Neither can I! The annual Big Ten-ACC basketball challenge has become more than a bit confusing with the changes in both conferences.

What the hell is Pennsylvania anyway? I mean, Philadelphia is East Coast but Pittsburgh?

Well, I would put Pennsylvania in the "eastern U.S." basket. And while NYC is certainly "east coast", I don't think that most of the state would fit into that category very well, but it would nicely fit into "eastern" or even as part of the "Northeast" (in contrast to the "Southeast"), but definitely not part of New England. There are many ways to divide the U.S. regional pie, and something or an overlap or wiggle room around the edges.

 

[BlueRidge]

Yes New York as Northeast. And Pennsylvania. But then it gets sticky down here. Washington DC is East Coast but not Northeast. Maryland is what?

 

[Vash01]

Wisconsin
Minnesota
Michigan
Iowa
Illinois
Indiana
Nebraska
Kansas (borderline)
Ohio (borderline, I think)

 

[snoopy]

Where do the Dakotas fit in? I think they are Midwest too. I think everything from Ohio to Colorado is Midwest.

 

[skatingfan5]

Yes New York as Northeast. And Pennsylvania. But then it gets sticky down here. Washington DC is East Coast but not Northeast. Maryland is what?

Maryland is in the mid Atlantic group of states, which includes NJ.

Where do the Dakotas fit in? I think they are Midwest too. I think everything from Ohio to Colorado is Midwest.

I guess many/most include the Dakotas as part of the Midwest, even if I don't (they are too far west for me and I call them part of the "Great Plains" along with Nebraska and Kansas (which I believe actually go as far west as the Rocky Mts. and thus include large parts of states further west).

 

[BlueRidge]

I completely forgot that Indiana exists...

 

[Susan1]

Well, when the area was first settled (by English-speaking white people), it was west of the settled areas, so "west" was usually part of the terms used to describe its location.

okey dokey

 

[snoopy]

gkelly is correct. There are parts of Ohio that are known as "the western reserve". The reserve was land purchased by and for Connecticut. Case Western Reserve is a respected local college.

 

[once_upon]

Born and raised in Iowa and Illinois, which everyone seems to agree is in the midwest, my list was:

• Indiana - No real question about the Hoosier State, only a midwesterns would be proud to be a Hoosier.
• Illinois - Drive from Chicago to St. Louis and see basically one large cornfield, it's definitely midwest.
• Iowa - Another no-brainer, ride the RAGBRAI and you'll get the midwestern hospitality.
• Michigan - Detroit may be a little different, but my feel has always been it is midwestern at heart.
• Wisconsin - Sorry cheeseheads, might as well call it North Illinois.
• Ohio - A little tougher call, as many pointed out, but the majority of it seems midwestern.
• Missouri - A 50/50. St. Louis is very midwestern, as is most of the northern half of the state, but as you go south and west, there becomes much more of a rural south feel.

I did not include Kentucky, Tennessee or Arkansas, because I get a stronger southern feel from them.

I did not include the next 'column' of states, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma as when I think of them, I picture fields of wheat and when I think midwest, I think corn. Yea, I know that is not terribly accurate or scientific, but neither is the designation of midwest.

Nebraska university mascot is Cornhusker! Corn fed beef makes for the best steaks. ND, SD Kansas, and OK are more Midwestern than Ohio.

 

[HeManSkaterDad]

@HeManSkaterDad - You seem to have completely left out Minnesota -- I hope it wasn't intentional!

Minnesota is different, they talk funny.

Actually, I was looking at (what I perceived as) cultural similarity, not just geography. Minnesota is certainly more like the midwest than California, but it is not the same. I can go from Illinois to its surrounding states and not notice I am in a different state. Being very un-PC and general, they all seem to have a very strong Scot-Irish/Northern European cultural undertone. Minnesota seems to have a much more Scandinavian feel to it. Nothing wrong with Minnesota, had a great time at Nationals, but it felt like I had gone away, while when I go to my midwestern states list, it does not feel that way.