How do you define the Midwest?

[JayhawkCO]

I don't know where the 42% of Coloradoans who say it's the Midwest are. Sure, the eastern plains I could get behind, but that sure as hell isn't 42% of the population.

According to the site, "mostly on the Eastern slope and closer to the Midwest".

"Closer to the Midwest" seems a very odd way of describing locations for this study. Excel would highlight it as circular.

Seems madness that 100% of people in Durango, from the looks of things, think that's the Midwest.

[kphoger]

Seems madness that 100% of people in Durango, from the looks of things, think that's the Midwest.

100% of respondents.  For all I know, that was one person.  Supposedly, an open-source database will be available at a later date.

[kphoger]

I will say that, growing up, I conceptualized "the West" as beginning at roughly the Sierra Nevada, and didn't really know what to call the area between there and the Front Range.

[J N Winkler]

To me, the biggest surprise is Ohio and Michigan both at less than 90%.  In the Rocky Mountain, Southern, and Mid-Atlantic states, identification with the Midwest is clearly a minority viewpoint.  It also doesn't surprise me that Oklahoma scores close to the middle.  It has cultural affinities to the South, especially in its eastern part, as well as a sui generis history of being used for resettlement of Native tribes.

I will say that, growing up, I conceptualized "the West" as beginning at roughly the Sierra Nevada, and didn't really know what to call the area between there and the Front Range.

I don't think I began to appreciate the distinction until I was an adult.  In terms of dialectology, they are all one region that basically includes the High Plains west of Wichita, which is contact territory between the West and Upland South.  In terms of geography and broad cultural factors, I tend to differentiate between the Pacific West, running from the coast to the crest of the coastal ranges, and the intermountain West, running from that line east to the Front Range.

[Rothman]

The four western ones surprise me.  ID doesn't make a lick of sense, but then again, little does in ID (still, having lived there, I didn't hear anyone say they were from the Midwest).  MT, CO and WY are just weird.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

RE: Ohio, Michigan, and the slightly lower numbers in WI/IL than their western neighbors, makes me wonder if some feel the Great Lakes is a stronger unique subregion than I would have thought. 

[JayhawkCO]

MT, CO and WY are just weird.

Parts aren't weird. If you're a farmer in Wibaux, Cheyenne Wells, or Lusk (in those states respectively), I get it. I don't understand Kalispell, Durango, or Cody which show 100% "Midwesternness".

[hotdogPi]

MT, CO and WY are just weird.

Parts aren't weird. If you're a farmer in Wibaux, Cheyenne Wells, or Lusk (in those states respectively), I get it. I don't understand Kalispell, Durango, or Cody which show 100% "Midwesternness".

Any tiny purple dot is 1 out of 1. You need to average the tiny purple dots with the tiny yellow dots in those parts of the states.

The percentage is still way too high, though.

[GaryV]

They evidently didn't ask the question in TX, because who the heck in TX would think they were in the Midwest?

So why did they ask in ID?

Who knows - maybe 11% of Texans think they're in the Midwest. And maybe some weirdos in CA or FL or ME would affirm it as well.

[JayhawkCO]

MT, CO and WY are just weird.

Parts aren't weird. If you're a farmer in Wibaux, Cheyenne Wells, or Lusk (in those states respectively), I get it. I don't understand Kalispell, Durango, or Cody which show 100% "Midwesternness".

Any tiny purple dot is 1 out of 1. You need to average the tiny purple dots with the tiny yellow dots in those parts of the states.

The percentage is still way too high, though.

One person thinking Durango is in the Midwest is flat earth type of lunacy.

[Rothman]

MT, CO and WY are just weird.

Parts aren't weird. If you're a farmer in Wibaux, Cheyenne Wells, or Lusk (in those states respectively), I get it. I don't understand Kalispell, Durango, or Cody which show 100% "Midwesternness".

Where, where and where, now?

[JayhawkCO]

MT, CO and WY are just weird.

Parts aren't weird. If you're a farmer in Wibaux, Cheyenne Wells, or Lusk (in those states respectively), I get it. I don't understand Kalispell, Durango, or Cody which show 100% "Midwesternness".

Where, where and where, now?

Which, funnily enough, defines a good part of the Midwest. 

[Rothman]

MT, CO and WY are just weird.

Parts aren't weird. If you're a farmer in Wibaux, Cheyenne Wells, or Lusk (in those states respectively), I get it. I don't understand Kalispell, Durango, or Cody which show 100% "Midwesternness".

Where, where and where, now?

Which, funnily enough, defines a good part of the Midwest. 

Well-played.

[kphoger]

MT, CO and WY are just weird.

Parts aren't weird. If you're a farmer in Wibaux, Cheyenne Wells, or Lusk (in those states respectively), I get it. I don't understand Kalispell, Durango, or Cody which show 100% "Midwesternness".

Where, where and where, now?

Yeah.  Well...  I actually am familiar with Cheyenne Wells, but only because I grew up about two hours away.

But really, if you look at the map, people living along the Front Range seem to be pretty evenly split on the issue:  roughly half consider themselves to live in the Midwest.

And that is basically how I think of it.  Remember, I grew up less than an hour east of the Colorado state line.  I think of the Midwest as extending basically to the Front Range.  Eastern Colorado is kind of a transition zone, but I have zero problem calling something like this (basically due nort of Cheyenne Wells) "the Midwest".

[bugo]

I laugh when somebody from northern Oklahoma claims that it is part of the South. Culturally and geographically, Tulsa is much more like Kansas City than Macon. It isn't Southern at all. Oklahoma is on the cusp of several different regions, but the only part of the state that I would remotely consider Southern is Le Flore and McCurtain counties.

[Scott5114]

Oklahoma = (What Texas is + what Kansas is + what Missouri is) / 3

We have a few things in common with the South, but we're not the South. At least not in Central Oklahoma. I got more of a culture shock going to Mississippi than I did Nevada.

[bugo]

But likewise many "southern" and "Ozark" places follow the Cardinals similarly.

I am originally from west central Arkansas, and now I live in northeastern Oklahoma. Both regions are solidly in Cardinals country. I used to work in a gas station in Broken Arrow, and I saw customers wearing Cardinals apparel all the time. The most common sports team apparel worn by customers was the Oklahoma Sooners, but the Cardinals were probably in second place. My grandfather, a native of Big Fork, Arkansas, was a gigantic Cardinals fan, which rubbed off on my sister and me.

[Scott5114]

But likewise many "southern" and "Ozark" places follow the Cardinals similarly.

I am originally from west central Arkansas, and now I live in northeastern Oklahoma. Both regions are solidly in Cardinals country. I used to work in a gas station in Broken Arrow, and I saw customers wearing Cardinals apparel all the time. The most common sports team apparel worn by customers was the Oklahoma Sooners, but the Cardinals were probably in second place. My grandfather, a native of Big Fork, Arkansas, was a gigantic Cardinals fan, which rubbed off on my sister and me.

Meanwhile you never see anyone wearing any baseball attire, much less for any specific team, in Central Oklahoma. It's basically Sooners and Thunder down here mixed with random NFL teams.

[bugo]

This is how the folks of Wikipedia define the Midwest as well as the Upper Midwest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Midwest

Yeah, but they think Alice Cooper's "Poison" is a power ballad, so they can't be trusted. It's a rocker type song. Nothing balladlike about it at all.

[Scott5114]

This is how the folks of Wikipedia define the Midwest as well as the Upper Midwest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Midwest

Yeah, but they think Alice Cooper's "Poison" is a power ballad, so they can't be trusted. It's a rocker type song. Nothing balladlike about it at all.

They also think DOT records can't be used to cite information about roads because it's a conflict of interest.

[JayhawkCO]

Yeah.  Well...  I actually am familiar with Cheyenne Wells, but only because I grew up about two hours away.

But really, if you look at the map, people living along the Front Range seem to be pretty evenly split on the issue:  roughly half consider themselves to live in the Midwest.

And that is basically how I think of it.  Remember, I grew up less than an hour east of the Colorado state line.  I think of the Midwest as extending basically to the Front Range.  Eastern Colorado is kind of a transition zone, but I have zero problem calling something like this (basically due nort of Cheyenne Wells) "the Midwest".

Having lived on the Front Range for about 40% of my life, I've never heard anyone call this the Midwest.

[kphoger]

Having lived on the Front Range for about 40% of my life, I've never heard anyone call this the Midwest.

What region do most people there say they live in, from your experience?

[JayhawkCO]

Having lived on the Front Range for about 40% of my life, I've never heard anyone call this the Midwest.

What region do most people there say they live in, from your experience?

Mountain West or West.

[Road Hog]

The massive influx of folks into NWA came from Texas and California and other states and many of them have no sense of what Arkansas is. A native will tell you Arkansas is definitively southern.

[webny99]

To me, the biggest surprise is Ohio and Michigan both at less than 90%.

The below point is one reason why I'm not particularly surprised by Ohio and Michigan, though I see it as a confluence of several factors:

RE: Ohio, Michigan, and the slightly lower numbers in WI/IL than their western neighbors, makes me wonder if some feel the Great Lakes is a stronger unique subregion than I would have thought.

They are also the two easternmost states that could be considered "Midwest", so some residents may see their state as too far east to be part of the Midwest.

Michigan specifically is comprised of two peninsulas geographically isolated from the rest of the Midwest and surrounded by three Great Lakes, so it makes sense that the Great Lakes are a much stronger part of the state's identity than the Midwest. And while farming does occur in Michigan, it's not as fertile as other parts of the Midwest nor part of the traditional "Corn Belt", so farming is more specialized in areas such as fruit and dairy, and the state's economy is less agriculture-dependent than other Midwestern states overall. Northern Michigan also frankly doesn't feel Midwestern at all. It has much more in common with parts of Ontario and northern New York than it does with Illinois or Iowa - it's no coincidence that I've compared I-75 north of Flint to I-81 north of Syracuse.

Ohio is interesting because it lies at the confluence of several geographic and cultural regions - the Midwest, the Rust Belt, the Great Lakes, and the Ohio Valley. I tend to see I-71 as the very rough dividing line between areas that feel Midwestern and those that don't. Cleveland, much like Detroit, has strong historical ties to the Great Lakes as a former Rust Belt manufacturing hub, and is really no more Midwestern than Pittsburgh other than by association with the state of Ohio as a whole. Columbus has more of a modern cosmopolitan vibe that has a more Midwestern feel, similar to cities such as Indianapolis and Des Moines. Meanwhile, Cincinnati, and much of southern Ohio, for that matter - hello, Hocking Hills - feels more southern than midwestern and could pass for Kentucky or West Virginia but is worlds away from the Great Plains.

In short, there's just a lot more nuance with Ohio and Michigan than there is with most of the other traditional Midwestern states, and there are areas of both states that are pretty clearly not Midwestern in any sense of the word.