Map of America - The Midwest

[Trajan12]

Why is it called the midwest, anyway? Must be some historical reason for it, right?

I dunno. Well consider that the colonists started in the East. So I suppose that when people first started going to the West in droves, the Midwest was considered some kind of halfway point.

 

[zjl56]

For some reason the Midwest is always taught in the great plains states as everything west of the Mississippi to the Rockies, and that definition makes cultural sense as well. Iowa and most of Illinois and Minnesota have much more in common with Oklahoma and Texas then Ohio. I don't know how the Great Lakes Region got nicknamed the Midwest...

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

As someone who went to college in Indiana, I am outraged and offended that you would place me in the same category as people from Nebraska. What do you have against Indiana that you would insult it like that?

 

[Phlegmak]

Is "Midwest" the correct term for this area?

It should be more like "Central-North".

 

[The Last Conformist]

As someone who went to college in Indiana, I am outraged and offended that you would place me in the same category as people from Nebraska. What do you have against Indiana that you would insult it like that?

We honestly thought you'd prefer it to being classed as Eastern European.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

On a serious note: I always considered the Midwest to be the Great Lakes states (and Rochester, NY, whence I come, has more in common with them, I think, than with New York City) and never really knew how to classify that stack from Kansas on up.

We honestly thought you'd prefer it to being classed as Eastern European.

Or, from . . . Andorra. [/shivers]

 

[zjl56]

If we were going to lump Ohio and Michigan in the the U.S, why would they be on a different time zone?

 

[Trajan12]

For some reason the Midwest is always taught in the great plains states as everything west of the Mississippi to the Rockies, and that definition makes cultural sense as well. Iowa and most of Illinois and Minnesota have much more in common with Oklahoma and Texas then Ohio. I don't know how the Great Lakes Region got nicknamed the Midwest...

Why do you place so much emphasis on Oklahoma and Texas? Texas is SouthWest, full stop. And Oklahoma is either South or Great Plains, depending on who actually cares.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

As someone who went to college in Indiana, I am outraged and offended that you would place me in the same category as people from Nebraska. What do you have against Indiana that you would insult it like that?

Well, that same principle applies anywhere you go. For example, as a New Yorker, I resent the idea of being put together with people from Jersey, and I'm sure Yankee fans are angry about being with Red Sox fans (not me, I like the Mets, and I also don't care about baseball). I also feel that I have not much in common with people from Maine or even the Green Mountain regions of upstate.

You're sharing a party with the big Red, so what? Just take your drink and hang out on the other side of the room.

 

[dannyshenanigan]

When American settlers were spreading out westward from the original 13 colonies it made much more sense to them to call it the Midwest and not the Mideast as they were heading West.

 

[Bamspeedy]

I disagree!!!

Hawaii, Calfiornia, Washington and Alaska aren't close!

'Pacific' means leftovers, or 'oddballs'.

I actually think Pennsylvania is more similar than that area.

Well, yeah there has to some give/take. PA can't be lumped over there because of how far away they are. Hell, I'd lump the western half of Wisconsin with MN, but the Mississippi River serves as a nice divider.

Why is it called the midwest, anyway? Must be some historical reason for it, right?

Wiki answer:

Spoiler :

[edit] History of the term "Midwest"
The term "Middle West" originated in the 19th century, followed by "Midwest." The heart of the Midwest is bounded by the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, the "Old Northwest" (or the "West"), an area that comprised the original Northwest Territory. This area is now called the "East North Central States" by the United States Census Bureau and the "Great Lakes" region by its inhabitants.

The Northwest Territory was created out of the ceded English (formerly French and Native American) frontier lands under the Northwest Ordinance by the Continental Congress just before the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery and religious discrimination, and promoted public schools and private property, but did not apply after the territories became states. The Northwest Ordinance also specified that the land be surveyed and sold in the rectangular grids of the Public Land Survey System, which was first used in Ohio. The effect of this grid system can be seen throughout the Midwest in such things as county shapes and road networks.

In contrast, land in Kentucky and Tennessee was surveyed and sold using metes and bounds. As Revolutionary War soldiers were awarded lands in Ohio and migrated there and to other Midwestern states with other pioneers, the area became the first thoroughly "American" region. Frederick Jackson Turner celebrated its frontier for shaping the national character of individualism and democracy.

The Midwest region today sometimes refers not only to states created from the Northwest Ordinance, but also may include states between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains and north of the Ohio River. In all, 12 states are covered by The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia(2006).

The term "West" was applied to the region in the early years of the country. Later, the region west of the Appalachians was divided into the Far West (now just the West), and the Middle West. Some parts of the Midwest have also been referred to as Northwest for historical reasons (for instance, this explains the Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines as well as Northwestern University in Illinois), so the current Northwest region of the country is called the Pacific Northwest to make a clear distinction.

The boundaries of what is considered the Midwest today are somewhat ambiguous. People from across the region consider themselves to be from the Midwest for very different reasons and have varying definitions and perceptions of the Midwest, and use has changed historically, gradually growing westward to include states which formerly were thought of as being the "West." Because the Northwest Territory lay between the East Coast and the then-far-West, the states carved out of it were called the "Northwest" in 1789, and "Middle West" (Middlewest, Middle-West) by 1898.

In the early 19th century, anything west of the Mississippi River was considered the West, and the Midwest was the region west of the Appalachians and east of the Mississippi. In time, some users began to include Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri, and with the settlement of the western prairie, a new term, "Great Plains States," was used for the row of states from North Dakota to Kansas. Later, these states annexed themselves unofficially to the Midwest. Today, the term "Far West" means the West Coast, and people as far west as the prairie sections of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana sometimes identify themselves with the term Midwest.[8]

On topic: Bamspeedys map says W. Virginia is part of the South.

Look at poverty levels and tell me it doesn't deserve to be considered the south. The Ohio river is also a good divider (and historically has been a divider, like slavery for example).

Spoiler :

19th century sectional conflict
Because the Northwest Ordinance region, comprising the heart of the Midwest, was the first large region of the United States which prohibited slavery (the Northeastern United States emancipated slaves in the 1830s), the region remains culturally apart from the country and proud of its free pioneer heritage. The regional southern boundary was the Ohio River, the border of freedom and slavery in American history and literature (See: Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe; Beloved, by Toni Morrison). The Midwest, particularly Ohio, provided the primary routes for the "Underground Railroad", whereby Midwesterners assisted slaves to freedom from their crossing of the Ohio River through their departure on Lake Erie to Canada.

The region was shaped by the relative absence of slavery (except for Missouri), pioneer settlement, education in one-room free public schools, and democratic notions brought with American Revolutionary War veterans, Protestant faiths and experimentation, and agricultural wealth transported on the Ohio River riverboats, flatboats, canal boats, and railroads.

 

[TheLastOne36]

isn't Tornado ally considered to be in the "Midwest"?

Maybe we should use that as a geographical term for the Midwest?

 

[Bamspeedy]

isn't Tornado ally considered to be in the "Midwest"?

Maybe we should use that as a geographical term for the Midwest?

'Tornado Alley' is basically the 'Central' US. Three different maps on wiki shows variations to what states you want to include in it, but basically it is from the rockies to the appalachian mountains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_alley

 

[TheLastOne36]

Include all the coloured areas (despite what they stand for) plus everything in between, and you get..

From this, start taking away stuff, like Missisipi.

 

[Adrogans]

Damn I lived in Oklahoma once. I don't want them to be in the Southwest with me. They can be Midwest.

 

[scy12]

So why it is called midwest and not Central USA for example ?

 

[Trajan12]

So why it is called midwest and not Central USA for example ?

I dunno. Well consider that the colonists started in the East. So I suppose that when people first started going to the West in droves, the Midwest was considered some kind of halfway point.

When American settlers were spreading out westward from the original 13 colonies it made much more sense to them to call it the Midwest and not the Mideast as they were heading West.

And for the last time, no we will not take Oklahoma. Not now, not ever.

 

[scy12]

And for the last time, no we will not take Oklahoma. Not now, not ever.

Who cares about those colonist now ? There is no spoon , there is no Midwest.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Why is it called the midwest, anyway? Must be some historical reason for it, right?

It used to be the Northwest Territories.

 

[Trajan12]

Who cares about those colonist now ?

Who cares about changing it now? If it's what we've culturally settled into, there's no need to change terms for the purpose of geographical semantics. The only thing that deserves to be disputed is what states are included.