# American State Geology **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 27, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864 "2008-12-27T18:57:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864/41 "2008-12-29T02:20:42Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Kansas, while tilted, is flatter then a pancake. > > [Is Kansas flat as a pancake? | Research | The Guardian](http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/sep/25/research.highereducation2) > > The highest point in Florida is only 345’. In the southern part of the state I don’t think there’s anything over 100’. > > [http://www.climber.org/Feature/HighPoints1997/fl.html](http://www.climber.org/Feature/HighPoints1997/fl.html) Then Florida would certainly whup Kansas, which has a 3400-foot variation from Mount Sunflower (which is no mountain and, from what I’ve read, isn’t even a proper hill) to the point where the Verdegris River sloshes into Oklahoma. How about Rhode Island or Connecticut for flatness? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864/42 "2008-12-29T02:27:51Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > There is no place in the U.S. where the Appalachians divide “North” from “South” and I do not recall ever reading where anyone identified the Appalachian range as a “North/South boundary,” but it is too strong a statement to claim that they were never a North South barrier. I was actually talking The North from The South. Capitalized. Speaking of that, though, the appalachians still never formed anything but a halfway-decent barrier. It made things moderately annoying, but not really “difficult”. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864/43 "2008-12-29T04:09:11Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > My contention is that the Appalachians are a North/South Boundary Culturally and Linguistically. Are those not also geographical considerations? Even the OP has his Highlanders and Lowlanders Then I will have to change my view that **smiling bandit** overstated his case and agree that you are just wrong. When comparing the North–Pennsylvania and Ohio–to the South–Virginia and Kentucky–the Appalachians provide no distinction between the North and the South. Philadelphia and Columbus are equally Northern cities with similar culture, regardless that the entire breadth of the Appalachians separates them, as distinct from the Southern cities of Richmond and Lexington. > [@devilsknew](#): > > Why an Appalachian Trail if it were so easy to go from The North to the South? Or vicey versey… You are aware, I hope, that the Appalachian Trail runs the length of the Appalachians, not the breadth, and that it was conceived in 1922 and completed in 1938 as a “back to nature” series of interconnected parks and hiking trails, having nothing to do with original exploration of the country. That highways US-1 and US-23 were each providing routine automobile traffic between the North and South before the Appalachian trail was ever completed. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864/44 "2008-12-29T04:28:23Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Then I will have to change my view that **smiling bandit** overstated his case and agree that you are just wrong. > > When comparing the North–Pennsylvania and Ohio–to the South–Virginia and Kentucky–the Appalachians provide no distinction between the North and the South. Philadelphia and Columbus are equally Northern cities with similar culture, regardless that the entire breadth of the Appalachians separates them, as distinct from the Southern cities of Richmond and Lexington. But what about Savannah and Cincinnati? > [@tomndebb](#): > > You are aware, I hope, that the Appalachian Trail runs the length of the Appalachians, not the breadth, and that it was conceived in 1922 and completed in 1938 as a “back to nature” series of interconnected parks and hiking trails, having nothing to do with original exploration of the country. That highways US-1 and US-23 were each providing routine automobile traffic between the North and South before the Appalachian trail was ever completed. From what I understand that trail was also dependent on many branches that traverse North and South, both indigenous and prehistoric. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864/45 "2008-12-29T04:44:17Z")
…the passes, the passes. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864/46 "2008-12-29T04:58:00Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > But what about Savannah and Cincinnati? What about them? If you can include Savannah and Cincinnati, then I can throw in Augusta, ME and Cincinnati or Richmond and Memphis. Arbitrarily identifying locations that are on opposite sides of the Appalachians while coincidentally North or South of an arbitrarily chosen parallel of latitude says nothing about the Appalachians as a barrier or boundary. Consider American accents. The three earliest American accents that have more than local application are the Northern, Midland, and Southern. Each of them crosses the Appalachians in a fairly direct line, East to West. They each occur on both sides of the Appalachians with no North/South division. None of them are actually bounded by much of a physical barrier or boundary and none of them find a boundary that follows the line of the Appalachians. (There are pockets of dialect that are found on the Appalachian ridge, where people in the mountains were separate from flatlanders long enough to develop uniquie speech patterns, but in those cases the Appalachians provide “shelter” for internal pockets, not boundaries between distinct regions.) ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864/47 "2008-12-29T05:03:17Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > What about them? If you can include Savannah and Cincinnati, then I can throw in Augusta, ME and Cincinnati or Richmond and Memphis. Arbitrarily identifying locations that are on opposite sides of the Appalachians while coincidentally North or South of an arbitrarily chosen parallel of latitude says nothing about the Appalachians as a barrier or boundary. Consider American accents. The three earliest American accents that have more than local application are the Northern, Midland, and Southern. Each of them crosses the Appalachians in a fairly direct line, East to West. They each occur on both sides of the Appalachians with no North/South division. None of them are actually bounded by much of a physical barrier or boundary and none of them find a boundary that follows the line of the Appalachians. (There are pockets of dialect that are found on the Appalachian ridge, where people in the mountains were separate from flatlanders long enough to develop uniquie speech patterns, but in those cases the Appalachians provide “shelter” for internal pockets, not boundaries between distinct regions.) I disagree, there is a very distinct boundary. Many think it follows the rivers. I think it follows the mountains. ---
**Author:** ![Glazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e57/32.png) [@Glazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glazer)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864/48 "2008-12-29T06:03:49Z")
How about largest percentage of land at lessthan 1% grade as a standard metric? I still think that Fl. would be the flatest. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864/49 "2008-12-29T06:10:47Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > I disagree, there is a very distinct boundary. Many think it follows the rivers. I think it follows the mountains. Look at any dialect map of the U.S. The Northern and Midland dialects punch right through the Appalachians and there is no mountain barrier betwen the Northern and Midland or the Midland and Southern regions. ---
**Author:** ![Glazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e57/32.png) [@Glazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glazer)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864/50 "2008-12-29T06:16:12Z")
> [@](#): > > I disagree, there is a very distinct boundary. Many think it follows the rivers. I think it follows the mountains. Wrong again it’s the Mason - Dixon line. I have never heard of the Appalachians being a north south border either politicly, culturally or geographicly. I have heard of them as an east west border during colonal expansion. Witch rivers exactly do many think divides the north from the south? ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864/51 "2008-12-29T07:43:26Z")
The Appalachians are well known for slowing down westward expansion. The [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Mountains#Influence_on_history) page has a rather large section on that very subject. But just look at the American colonies in the 1760’s. They line up [east](http://www.teachnet.ie/jheffernan/2005/coloniallife.htm) of the Appalachians, from Florida to Massachusetts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-geology/478864.md?page=2)