Longest Interstate You Haven't Been On

[hotdogPi]

In Kansas and Nebraska, anything in green in the first map is part of the Midwest, while anything in orange isn't. To make things simpler, SD/ND/MN follows the state line (MN is, and SD and ND aren't). Oklahoma follows the same rules as Kansas and Nebraska if you don't consider it part of the South.

Now look at the second map, and where the second darkest green begins. Pretty much the same line.

Would a separate "Great Plains" region also exist under this definition? My main issue with it is that I'm not sure what the Dakotas are if not the Midwest. They're even more Midwestern than Nebraska/Kansas IMO. In fact, I would submit that the Dakotas are the main reason it seems so obvious to me that the Great Plains being a subset of the Midwest: the Dakotas embody that subset both culturally and geographically.

I don't believe that places have to belong to one region and one region only. I recognize a Great Plains region that overlaps partially with the Midwest (and the South, in the case of Oklahoma and Texas). The Great Plains end to the west where the mountains begin and to the east where the trees begin.

Thread split?

[NWI_Irish96]

The problem with defining areas is that our country doesn't have a lot of sharp cultural boundaries, it's more steady.

If we define the Chicago area to be 100% Midwestern, it's not like that 100% stretches to a certain point and then you reach an area that's 0% Midwestern.

I've lived 10+ years at each end of Indiana and spent countless time in between, and I can definitively tell you that it's gradual.

The Hammond/Gary area is 100% Midwestern.

Lafayette and Kokomo are about 90% Midwestern and about 10% Southern.

By the time you get to Indy, it's 20-25% Southern.

At the Kentucky border, it's more like 35-40% Southern.

[CtrlAltDel]

I'm from the Midwest, and they're not.

If central Texas is the Midwest... that's a whole other debate. 

(I am in the "Great Plains are a subset of the Midwest" camp, by the way.)

I live in Texas, but I'm from the Midwest.

[kphoger]

Kansas City, KS is a different world from Kansas City, MO ...

This is statement is so hilariously wrong ...

So, so, so wrong.  There's more of a divide between Johnson and Wyandotte counties than there is between KCK and KCMO.

[JayhawkCO]

Kansas City, KS is a different world from Kansas City, MO ...

This is statement is so hilariously wrong ...

So, so, so wrong.  There's more of a divide between Johnson and Wyandotte counties than there is between KCK and KCMO.

Fully agreed. And for that matter Jackson County and Cass County too.

[kphoger]

In Kansas and Nebraska, anything in green in the first map is part of the Midwest, while anything in orange isn't.

I grew up in Atwood, KS.  While living there, the thought never once occurred to me that it wasn't in the Midwest.

But, just in case I was in the minority or unduly influenced by parents who had a misunderstanding of what the Midwest really was, I just texted a good friend of mine who grew up his whole childhood on a farm near Fowler, KS, to ask him if it's in the Midwest.  He just texted back to say 'Yes'.

So, while your delineation may be interesting in theory, it doesn't appear to accurately represent the view of the people who actually live here.

[JayhawkCO]

So, while your delineation may be interesting in theory, it doesn't appear to accurately represent the view of the people who actually live here.

AARoads -- where something you read on the internet about a place is of more validity than the opinions of those who live there/have travelled extensively there.

[webny99]

Oh, I weight the opinions of people who actually live or have lived there much more heavily.  I can't say I've actively sought the opinions of the people I know in that part of the country, but I can't imagine they would think the Great Plains aren't part of the Midwest.

I would question parts of southern Indiana/Ohio being called the Midwest light years before I'd ever question the Dakotas, Nebraska, or Kansas.

[roadman65]

Interstate 85 except for snips of it in Metro Areas like Atlanta, Montgomery, Charlotte, etc.

[kphoger]

From my perspective, the KS/CO state line is a decent approximation for the divider between Midwest and West.  There is a small strip of far eastern Colorado that resembles the rest of the Midwest (this could be somewhere in northern Iowa if you didn't know better), but it's a very narrow strip and hardly worth mentioning.

For me, though, the question becomes this:  where is that line farther north?  I mean, how different, really, is this from this?  Yet is it reasonable to say that any place in Montana could be considered Midwestern?  That doesn't seem quite right either...

[JayhawkCO]

Full states of ND, SD, NE, KS, MN, IA, WI, IL, IN, and MI.

Parts of MO & OH.

[kphoger]

Full states of ND, SD, NE, KS, MN, IA, WI, IL, IN, and MI.

Parts of MO & OH.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati is nicknamed the "Queen City of the West" . . .

[US 89]

Full states of ND, SD, NE, KS, MN, IA, WI, IL, IN, and MI.

Parts of MO & OH.

Agreed with most of this, but I'd extend it down into at least the northern half of Oklahoma. My parents grew up in Bartlesville and considered themselves Midwesterners - a sentiment I'd agree with having been there several times. Even Tulsa feels like it has a lot more in common with Omaha or Lincoln than it does with any of the similarly-sized Texas cities.

[JayhawkCO]

Agreed with most of this, but I'd extend it down into at least the northern half of Oklahoma. My parents grew up in Bartlesville and considered themselves Midwesterners - a sentiment I'd agree with having been there several times. Even Tulsa feels like it has a lot more in common with Omaha or Lincoln than it does with any of the similarly-sized Texas cities.

I could get on board with that. I thought about including eastern Montana as well, but in reality, I feel like that area has a lot of people who are proud Montanans and feel like Montana is 100% in the West no matter how much it looks like Kansas up there.

[MikeTheActuary]

I know, the thread has moved on a little bit....

Would a separate "Great Plains" region also exist under this definition? My main issue with it is that I'm not sure what the Dakotas are if not the Midwest. They're even more Midwestern than Nebraska/Kansas IMO. In fact, I would submit that the Dakotas embody the "Great Plains" subset of the Midwest (and are the strongest evidence that such a subset exists) both culturally and geographically.

I mostly agree with this thought, although I'd frame it more as: should the "Great Plains" be considered a grouping distinct from the "Midwest"?

The answer probably depends on why you are discussing geographic regions.

[FrCorySticha]

Agreed with most of this, but I'd extend it down into at least the northern half of Oklahoma. My parents grew up in Bartlesville and considered themselves Midwesterners - a sentiment I'd agree with having been there several times. Even Tulsa feels like it has a lot more in common with Omaha or Lincoln than it does with any of the similarly-sized Texas cities.

I could get on board with that. I thought about including eastern Montana as well, but in reality, I feel like that area has a lot of people who are proud Montanans and feel like Montana is 100% in the West no matter how much it looks like Kansas up there.

That's the part of Montana I'm originally from, and absolutely it's both Great Plains (which IMO is a more of a geologic principle) and Western (which is more cultural). Though western ND and eastern MT tend to be a blurred line between Upper Midwest and Western. You find many similarities between both cultural groups in that area.

[D-Dey65]

Since I've never been anywhere west of the Eastern Time Zone, I probably had a long list there.

But the longest W-E route is I-94. The longest S-N route is I-35 (I thought I-5 was longer).

A big surprise to me, I don't think I was ever on I-20. Perhaps in Atlanta back in 1975 or something like that, I know I was on BS 20 in Florence.

[davewiecking]

This has been driving me crazy since I first saw this thread years ago. For awhile I thought it was I-10, but must have been on it during a family trip to New Orleans in the late 60's (we flew in, I assume using Louie Armstrong which is right off I-10). I-75 was in the running, until I remembered a work trip to Dayton, OH and Lexington, KY in the mid 80's which might have involved part of I-75. (I remember part of the journey between the 2 involved a 15 minute flight that was the last leg of a 747 flight from Japan. My group of 5 were the only passengers on the plane-my only flight ever on a Jumbo jet. Ridiculously, the Cincinnati airport was also involved.) I am 100% certain I have never been on I-94, which is the 8th longest Interstate, although I did cross over the western edge outside of Billings in 2018.

[JayhawkCO]

Born in Minnesota and a long time resident of Kansas. Definitely west of the Mississippi and definitely both Midwest.

[Scott5114]

Agreed with most of this, but I'd extend it down into at least the northern half of Oklahoma. My parents grew up in Bartlesville and considered themselves Midwesterners - a sentiment I'd agree with having been there several times. Even Tulsa feels like it has a lot more in common with Omaha or Lincoln than it does with any of the similarly-sized Texas cities.

Oklahoma is twelve regions in a trenchcoat pretending to be a coherent state, so if you're going to split any state, it would be the one to split. I should note, though, that lumping it in with the South (as some people do) is not correct. When I visited Mississippi and especially Louisiana in March, it felt like I was visiting a foreign country. If anything, OK/TX should be a region to themselves; if not, they should both be in the same region as KS and MO. (Kansas feels a lot more like home to me than I felt in Mississippi.)

[ethanhopkin14]

Agreed with most of this, but I'd extend it down into at least the northern half of Oklahoma. My parents grew up in Bartlesville and considered themselves Midwesterners - a sentiment I'd agree with having been there several times. Even Tulsa feels like it has a lot more in common with Omaha or Lincoln than it does with any of the similarly-sized Texas cities.

Oklahoma is twelve regions in a trenchcoat pretending to be a coherent state, so if you're going to split any state, it would be the one to split. I should note, though, that lumping it in with the South (as some people do) is not correct. When I visited Mississippi and especially Louisiana in March, it felt like I was visiting a foreign country. If anything, OK/TX should be a region to themselves; if not, they should both be in the same region as KS and MO. (Kansas feels a lot more like home to me than I felt in Mississippi.)

I agree.  It geographically is closest to the Great Plains, but I have never felt like I was in the Great Plains in Oklahoma.  It's it's own bird.  It's not south, its not west although it borders states that are considered both.  It has mountains and flat land...  There is way more in Oklahoma than people think.  OU just needs to stop stealing our football players. 

[Scott5114]

Agreed with most of this, but I'd extend it down into at least the northern half of Oklahoma. My parents grew up in Bartlesville and considered themselves Midwesterners - a sentiment I'd agree with having been there several times. Even Tulsa feels like it has a lot more in common with Omaha or Lincoln than it does with any of the similarly-sized Texas cities.

Oklahoma is twelve regions in a trenchcoat pretending to be a coherent state, so if you're going to split any state, it would be the one to split. I should note, though, that lumping it in with the South (as some people do) is not correct. When I visited Mississippi and especially Louisiana in March, it felt like I was visiting a foreign country. If anything, OK/TX should be a region to themselves; if not, they should both be in the same region as KS and MO. (Kansas feels a lot more like home to me than I felt in Mississippi.)

I agree.  It geographically is closest to the Great Plains, but I have never felt like I was in the Great Plains in Oklahoma.  It's it's own bird.  It's not south, its not west although it borders states that are considered both.  It has mountains and flat land...  There is way more in Oklahoma than people think.  OU just needs to stop stealing our football players. 

Only if you stop stealing our teachers.

[kphoger]

I have never felt like I was in the Great Plains in Oklahoma
It's not south
its not west
It has mountains and flat land

Sounds like Ohio or Michigan, which are both definitely in the Midwest.

[JayhawkCO]

I have never felt like I was in the Great Plains in Oklahoma
It's not south
its not west
It has mountains and flat land

Sounds like Ohio or Michigan, which are both definitely in the Midwest.

I still stick to my guns that Ohio is only partly in the Midwest. You can move the line I posted upthread east a bit if you want, but the southeast you'd have a tough time convincing me of. Since West Virginia is maybe the toughest state outside of Oklahoma to categorize, the portion of Ohio that borders WV isn't too different.

[formulanone]

I've decided there's a North Central Midwest, Southeastern Midwest, Near Western Midwest, and a Further Eastern Midwest.

Y'all can decide which states and sub-regions belong in there, but I'll be really disappointed if Buffalo and Paducah don't enter the discussion.