# Geography is apparently a lost art, sorry, skill
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [March 1, 2026, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118 "2026-03-01T19:43:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/41 "2026-03-02T20:32:15Z")
> [@enipla](#):
>
> You must be on the west side of the Mississippi to be considered mid-west.
I know it’s somewhat arbitrary, but aren’t Illinois and Wisconsin considered mid-western states? I don’t think of them as eastern.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/42 "2026-03-02T20:35:59Z")
> [@snowthx](#):
>
> but aren’t Illinois and Wisconsin considered mid-western states?
Yes, they are, by pretty much by any definition except that of defining “east” and “west” by the Mississippi River.
(And, thank you, @enipla , for explaining. 🙂 )
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/43 "2026-03-02T20:41:32Z")
> [@enipla](#):
>
> You must be on the west side of the Mississippi to be considered mid-west.
That may be true of the **mid-west** , but it’s not true of the **Midwest**.
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### Author:  [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/44 "2026-03-02T20:44:53Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> When the inhabited USA stopped at the Mississippi river, the term “Midwest” was coined to describe the western USA that was east of the wild indian country they hoped to soon conquer.
>
> In the •200 years since then, the USA’s borders have moved. The location of the states labeled “midwest” in 1825 has not.
This is what I was coming in here to say. This is why Northwestern University is Chicago, rather than Seattle.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/45 "2026-03-02T20:47:58Z")
Really this all happenend with the westward move of our country. Ohio was at one point very west. It’s not any more.
Once people moved on to Kansas and farther Ohio became midwest. It holds to this day. Dosen’t mean it’s correct.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/46 "2026-03-02T20:48:07Z")
> [@fedman1](#):
>
> …doesn’t anyone look at a map anymore?
The NCAA will shortly be releasing the bracket for their basketball championship tournaments, divided into four regional sub-tournaments. For the love of God, anyone bothered by this thread had best not look.
Using the Mississippi River as a dividing line becomes a bit problematic in Northern Minnesota, but I’m sure a workaround can be found.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/47 "2026-03-02T20:50:33Z")
Yeah. You and @LSLGuy beat me to it.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/48 "2026-03-02T20:59:08Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> The NCAA will shortly be releasing the bracket for their basketball championship tournaments, divided into four regional sub-tournaments. For the love of God, anyone bothered by this thread had best not look.
LOL. Yes, the NCAA tournament “regions” make some of the NFL’s historical regional division assignments look positively logical by comparison.
(Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay in the “Central?” Atlanta and New Orleans in the “West?” Dallas and Phoenix in the “East?”) (The Dallas one still is true, but that’s entirely due to Jerry Jones demanding to keep the Giants, Eagles, and Redskins in his division, for rivalry purposes, during realignment.)
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### Author:  [@Lizzie1210](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizzie1210)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/49 "2026-03-02T21:23:57Z")
Apparently, map reading is just about as dead as cursive writing, reading analog clocks and knowing how to pay with cash.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/50 "2026-03-02T21:25:58Z")
The Western Reserve is a transplanted graft of Connecticut. The Western Reserve _is_ New England in the foundational sense. The heritage has resulted in many civic cultural resources. But the rest of Ohio may as well be the Midwest. Most of the interior and west of the state is basically Indiana.
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/51 "2026-03-02T21:32:17Z")
> [@Maus\_Magill](#):
>
> This is what I was coming in here to say. This is why Northwestern University is Chicago, rather than Seattle.
Another one is Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. The [Western Reserve](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Western_Reserve) part comes from the western portion of the Connecticut colony, which stretched roughly the same latitude as the Connecticut we know today, all the way to the Mississippi River, and included parts of what is now metro Chicago (at that time considered the northwestern frontier).
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/52 "2026-03-02T21:39:47Z")
I went to college in St. Louis. In my view it is America’s neutral gear. It is not North. It is not South. It is not East. It is not West. It is in between all of them.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/53 "2026-03-02T21:42:09Z")
So, something of a gateway, perhaps?
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/54 "2026-03-02T21:48:02Z")
I once tried to join a band formed by a native St. Louisan who hated his city. One time during a break I played “Maple Leaf Rag” on the piano. He went on an unhinged rant about how much he hated Scott Joplin and St. Louis in general. He decried the “this is far enough” mentality. “We’re not going West, we’ll stay here and sell stuff to those who are going West.” I quit his nascent band right then.
It hurt me to the core, because my love for Scott Joplin’s music is what had drawn me to St. Louis in the first place. This world is just full of jerks, that’s all.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/55 "2026-03-02T22:07:28Z")
People h a pretty vague relationship with geography unless they actually live there, are geography wonks or travel a lot.
I mean people routinely get confused and think Texas is one big desert and are astounded to find out that the majority is not and is quite green and lush much of the year.
I’m not surprised that they didn’t pay attention or don’t recall that Pennsylvania and New York were “Middle Colonies”. To them, the “Northeast” and New England are the same
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/56 "2026-03-02T22:09:14Z")
> [@Johanna](#):
>
> Scott Joplin’s music is what had drawn me to St. Louis in the first place.
Thanks for introducing me to Scott. I love that Rag time. Now it’s time for Chess. That’s usually Pink Floyd though.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/57 "2026-03-02T22:20:31Z")
That’s odd, I associate Chess with Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, etc.
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### Author:  [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/58 "2026-03-02T22:20:40Z")
Gateway to the West, hence Gateway Arch
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/59 "2026-03-02T22:22:44Z")
> [@enipla](#):
>
> West is on the west side of the Rocky Mountains.
And Midwest is west of the Appalachians - the Eastern Continental Divide. America is big. It has more parts than just east and west.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-is-apparently-a-lost-art-sorry-skill/1028118/60 "2026-03-02T22:25:20Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> America is big. It has more parts than just east and west.
Florida is just obscene!
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