Stragest Common State Borders

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Geographically, in MN/WI the only striking change is crossing from hilly Duluth to pancake-flat Superior. Obviously culturally they're pretty similar.

[formulanone]

Georgia and Florida.

Florida's Panhandle might as well be Southern Alabama/Georgia, with the Apalachicola River being the divider.

Edit: as said a few posts back

[NWI_Irish96]

Two that seem weird to me are IL/KY and OH/WV, but I've spent very little time anywhere near those borders. I imagine that every border seems fairly fluid if you are more familiar with the area.

[ethanhopkin14]

Two that seem weird to me are IL/KY and OH/WV, but I've spent very little time anywhere near those borders. I imagine that every border seems fairly fluid if you are more familiar with the area.

I think more than one post is confusing the geography of the actual border with what the original title of the post was about. The point of this post is two states that share a common border, but the individual states have cultural and geographical ideals that are very different as a whole.  As my original Oklahoma/New Mexico example, the two states are extremely far apart in the eyes of the mases, but of course the physical border between the two isn't that drastic because changes aren't that abrupt in geography.  I just visited the Texas/Oklahoma/New Mexico tri point, and it wasn't like at the Texas side was oil derricks and cowboys in ten gallon hats, the Oklahoma side had tornados and farmland and the New Mexico side had Kokapelli dancing on tall mountains.  No, all three sides looked like the same farm land. 

[ethanhopkin14]

This isn't really a border, but Texas is about 35 miles from Colorado at its closest point. That especially feels weird.

I like this.  I think it should be included.  States that don't border but almost do, which are culturally and geographically different.  I don't think Texas has anything in common with Colorado, yet it's a short jaunt (basically across one county) from Texas to Colorado.

[vdeane]

Florida's Panhandle might as well be Southern Alabama/Georgia, with the Apalachicola River being the divider.

Interesting... I believe the Apalachicola River was also the dividing line between East Florida and West Florida (which included parts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana) way back when.

[thspfc]

Geographically, in MN/WI the only striking change is crossing from hilly Duluth to pancake-flat Superior. Obviously culturally they're pretty similar.

Minnesota and Wisconsin might be the least strange state border.

[Rothman]

Geographically, in MN/WI the only striking change is crossing from hilly Duluth to pancake-flat Superior. Obviously culturally they're pretty similar.

Minnesota and Wisconsin might be the least strange state border.

Viking and Packer fans are coming to burn your house down.

[The Nature Boy]

This isn't really a border, but Texas is about 35 miles from Colorado at its closest point. That especially feels weird.

I like this.  I think it should be included.  States that don't border but almost do, which are culturally and geographically different.  I don't think Texas has anything in common with Colorado, yet it's a short jaunt (basically across one county) from Texas to Colorado.

I'll cheat again and expand my previous post:

If you told someone that Illinois and Tennessee were very close together, they'd think you were lying to them. The average person wouldn't think that there are people in the same state as Chicago who would have Nashville, Tennessee as their closest big city.

Virginia and Pennsylvania are also only separated by a small sliver of Maryland.

[thenetwork]

I was surprised how close (Charles Town,) West Virginia was to Washington DC.  Just a  shade over 50 miles as the crow flies and just a shade over 60 miles driving.

Considering that Cincinnati is 120 miles (flying) to 150 miles (driving) to Huntington WV on the other side of the state.

[roadman65]

I was always surprised how MO and AR bordered as you considered North and South in Culture. Though driving across the I see exactly the same hilly topography.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Geographically, in MN/WI the only striking change is crossing from hilly Duluth to pancake-flat Superior. Obviously culturally they're pretty similar.

Minnesota and Wisconsin might be the least strange state border.

That's why I said *geographically*. I'm pretty well aware culturally MN and WI are about the two most similar places of anywhere in the country.

[SP Cook]

WV- I have always said that the key to understanding WV is that the different parts are much more like the places they border, than they are one another.

Red and blue - The map to look at is the one by counties, not states.  This will help one understand that you really don't have that many blue states, nor all that many red ones but rather large red areas where the blue county residents outnumber everyone else, and those where they do not.  It is not really that, say there is this big political shift at the WV MD line or the OR ID line or whatever, but rather somewhere very nearer somewhere urban within one state.

[bwana39]

People would probably say Texas and Louisiana. The Difference between College Station and Lafayette is huge. The difference between Monroe and Lafayette is bigger. Realistically from a cultural standpoint, Louisiana should be cut off just north of Alexandria. Texas should end with Harris county. Pretty much everything East of there south of US-190 more or less belongs with Louisiana.

[hbelkins]

Two that seem weird to me are IL/KY and OH/WV, but I've spent very little time anywhere near those borders. I imagine that every border seems fairly fluid if you are more familiar with the area.

There's probably less difference between the various locations on the border between OH and WV along the river than there is between OH and KY (excepting the Boyd/Greenup county area of Kentucky.) I can't really tell a lot of difference between Pt. Pleasant and Gallipolis, Williamstown and Marietta, or Weirton and Steubenville; but I can between Maysville and Aberdeen. I went to college with a whole lot of people from Adams and Brown counties and nearby areas in Ohio, and they seemed to be more midwestern than the people from Scioto and Lawrence counties, who seemed more Appalachian.

[ethanhopkin14]

People would probably say Texas and Louisiana. The Difference between College Station and Lafayette is huge. The difference between Monroe and Lafayette is bigger. Realistically from a cultural standpoint, Louisiana should be cut off just north of Alexandria. Texas should end with Harris county. Pretty much everything East of there south of US-190 more or less belongs with Louisiana.

This is what I was looking for in this thread.  I think this topic was geared more toward people who don't live in the regions of the state borders looking at the generalization of the states as a whole.  I was born and raised in Texas.  It is not strange to me that Texas borders Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.   My in-laws are from Vidor, so near the Louisiana line, and my family is from Marshall, also near the Louisiana state line, albeit a completely different part of Louisiana culturally.  I am very aware personally of Louisiana's border with Texas, but this thread is not for me in that regard.  It's more geared to that guy in Bangor, Maine, who thinks word association with:

Texas: Cowboys with big hats, country music, oil fields, flatness and a Mexican flair.

Louisiana: Swamp, bayous, creole people, etouffee, gumbo, French, The Quarter and Zydeco Music. 

Culturally and even geographically not in the same ballpark, so I understand why most people would think Louisiana and Texas sharing a common boundary is insane.  Now, you being from Texarkana, like myself, don't think this transition is that jarring personally because both Texas and Louisiana are so much more than the average person thinks it is, combined with East Texas and West Louisiana being exactly alike (but only SE Texas - SW Louisiana and NE Texas and NW Louisiana...they don't cross, not by a long shot). 

I say this because most replies are "well I like in the X state Y state border area and see no difference" or "I have driven across the X state Y state border and saw the same geographical features on one side of the line as the other."  This thread is not about the actual physical border area, its about generalizations.

I think the average person not from the western states would be shocked to learn that Kansas and Colorado share a common border.  Colorado is associated with the Rocky Mountains and nature while Kansas is associated with farms and farmers.  Culturally you can't get that further apart, but they share a border.  Now anyone who has driven I-70 east of Denver to Kansas knows once you leave Denver, Colorado looks exactly like Kansas so that people from say, Burlington, CO don't think it's that big of a deal. 

Also, New York and Vermont sharing a border is odd to some people.  Vermont is thought of as maple trees, apple trees and very rural and most people think of New York City when they think of New York.  so the thought of a rural place touching a very very urban place is a bit jarring to people not from the area.  That's not saying if you cross Lake Champlain and land in Plattsburg you will be baffled by the immediate change.  Of course the topography and scenery will not have any difference. 

Sorry for the rant, I am just trying to clarify what I was looking for in this thread, and I think you hit it on the nail.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

In that case, is it weird AZ and CO touch? In a simplified sense I think of CO as snow covered mountains and AZ as a vast desert.

NY/VT/NH and Quebec. Maine not so much because of the prominent French-Canadian flair of the northern half.

[CoreySamson]

In my opinion, parts of Texas and Louisiana are quite alike. Some of the attributes ethanhopkin listed, such as the cowboy hats, flatness, country music, swamp, and bayous are common to both states. Where I'm at it gets even more intertwined, as local Mexican restaurants (typically a Texas thing) serve lots of crawfish (typically a Louisiana thing) at certain times of year, certain locales (such as Galveston) celebrate Mardi Gras almost as much as NOLA, and many creeks in the area are called bayous.

Of course I've lived my entire life in either Texas or Louisiana, so maybe I don't think of them as very different for that reason. Before I moved to Texas, I thought of them as much different, but as soon as I crossed the border, that changed.

One other border that feels odd to me is Iowa/Missouri. I tend to think of Iowa as largely cornfields, and Missouri as mostly hills and rivers, but they share a pretty long border.

[Dirt Roads]

I was surprised how close (Charles Town,) West Virginia was to Washington DC.  Just a  shade over 50 miles as the crow flies and just a shade over 60 miles driving.

On that note, I once took some friends from North Carolina on a short road trip from the Winchester area to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.  Afterwards, I got a wild hair and drove them up to Hancock, Maryland, told them to close their eyes for a minute and surprised them with the "Welcome to Pennsylvania" sign.  Needless to say, they weren't expecting to cross the Mason-Dixon line so quickly.  Did a U-turn at the US-522 exit and brought them back via WV-9.

[ethanhopkin14]

I was surprised how close (Charles Town,) West Virginia was to Washington DC.  Just a  shade over 50 miles as the crow flies and just a shade over 60 miles driving.

On that note, I once took some friends from North Carolina on a short road trip from the Winchester area to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.  Afterwards, I got a wild hair and drove them up to Hancock, Maryland, told them to close their eyes for a minute and surprised them with the "Welcome to Pennsylvania" sign.  Needless to say, they weren't expecting to cross the Mason-Dixon line so quickly.  Did a U-turn at the US-522 exit and brought them back via WV-9.

Also to that point, I think the average person is shocked to find out where the Mason-Dixon Line actually is.  Most southerners seem to think it's way more south than it actually is. 

[jp the roadgeek]

I find it strange that PA is a Canadian border state.  Yes, it's in the middle of Lake Erie, but being buried under NY for 95% of it's length plus the fact it borders WV and MD amazes you that it actually has an international border.

NY and RI share a water border.  RIDOT exploits this by using NYC as a control for I-95 South and skipping over CT cities.

MI and MN share a water border.  There's one small area where WI doesn't get in the way

And CT and NJ are only 12 miles apart at their closest points.

[Dirt Roads]

I was surprised how close (Charles Town,) West Virginia was to Washington DC.  Just a  shade over 50 miles as the crow flies and just a shade over 60 miles driving.

On that note, I once took some friends from North Carolina on a short road trip from the Winchester area to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.  Afterwards, I got a wild hair and drove them up to Hancock, Maryland, told them to close their eyes for a minute and surprised them with the "Welcome to Pennsylvania" sign.  Needless to say, they weren't expecting to cross the Mason-Dixon line so quickly.  Did a U-turn at the US-522 exit and brought them back via WV-9.

Also to that point, I think the average person is shocked to find out where the Mason-Dixon Line actually is.  Most southerners seem to think it's way more south than it actually is.

Yes, and also the Twelve-Mile Arc border between Delaware and Pennsylvania.  I'm always amazed about "The Wedge" created by "The Arc" and the Mason-Dixon Line that was disputed by Pennsylvania until the early 1920s.  Nobody mentions that "The Wedge" should have belonged to Maryland.  Also, there's a section of "The Arc" that rolls west of the "North Line" between Maryland and Delaware, and that was supposed to remain part of Delaware.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

The OP included international borders. However I parse "State" as national subdivision. In that vein, one can be surprised by the fact Aragon and Rioja, Spain not only border each other, but there is a road that weaves between them! That road goes from Castile and Leon to Navarre (which don't border), thus going through four communities in just 3.5 miles.

[CtrlAltDel]

Nobody mentions that "The Wedge" should have belonged to Maryland.

Well, part of that is because this claim was very much in dispute.

Also, there's a section of "The Arc" that rolls west of the "North Line" between Maryland and Delaware, and that was supposed to remain part of Delaware.

Not to be too argumentative, but as far as I can tell, it is part of Delaware.

[Dirt Roads]

Nobody mentions that "The Wedge" should have belonged to Maryland.

Well, part of that is because this claim was very much in dispute.

My understanding was that Pennsylvania claimed "The Wedge", not Maryland.

Also, there's a section of "The Arc" that rolls west of the "North Line" between Maryland and Delaware, and that was supposed to remain part of Delaware.

Not to be too argumentative, but as far as I can tell, it is part of Delaware.

I do see a slight deviation in the North Line, but didn't the Twelve Mile Arc extend further into Maryland when it was first surveyed?