# Where is Oklahoma? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 27, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735 "2007-09-27T21:27:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miscue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Miscue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miscue)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/21 "2007-09-27T23:01:26Z")
It is absolutely and for damn sure not the south. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/22 "2007-09-27T23:03:37Z")
[QUOTE=Miscue] It is absolutely and for damn sure not the south. [/QUOTE] That’s the thing. You have some states in there that don’t quite count as the South, even though they’re south of what I consider the Midwest. Texas is one of them. Oklahoma is another. edit: Chronos’s suggestion is one that works for me. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/23 "2007-09-27T23:05:05Z")
Oklahoma in the “southwest” just doesn’t sound right to me, even if the folks living there say so. Of course, as I think about it, I realize that my “southwest” category consists of two states - Arizona and New Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/24 "2007-09-27T23:06:52Z")
Certainly Great Plains, along with North and South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, and North Texas if you want to divide Texas up. (Dallas is Great Plains, Houston is the South, though I am OK with Texas having its own deal.) Where people get the idea that Oklahoma and Kansas are Midwest, I have no idea. The Midwest is states up by the Great Lakes. Missouri is the one I often question. ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/25 "2007-09-27T23:08:12Z")
[QUOTE=yabob] Oklahoma in the “southwest” just doesn’t sound right to me, even if the folks living there say so. Of course, as I think about it, I realize that my “southwest” category consists of two states - Arizona and New Mexico. [/QUOTE] Add Utah and Nevada and you’ve got it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/26 "2007-09-27T23:10:48Z")
[QUOTE=T\_SQUARE] Missouri is the one I often question. [/QUOTE] Yeah. I consider it Midwest, but it (or at least significant parts of it) can just as well be lumped in with the South. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/27 "2007-09-27T23:11:10Z")
[QUOTE=T\_SQUARE] Add Utah and Nevada and you’ve got it. [/QUOTE] I’ve never heard anyone else lump those two in with the American Southwest. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/28 "2007-09-27T23:13:36Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] I’ve never heard anyone else lump those two in with the American Southwest. [/QUOTE] FWIW, I have. ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/29 "2007-09-27T23:17:52Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] I’ve never heard anyone else lump those two in with the American Southwest. [/QUOTE] Well, they either have to be SW, Rockies, or West Coast. I think South West gets it best if you can’t break states up. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/30 "2007-09-27T23:18:21Z")
[QUOTE=T\_SQUARE] Add Utah and Nevada and you’ve got it. [/QUOTE] Nevada, maybe. Utah is “Rocky Mountain States”, which is where I tend to place Nevada also, along with CO, WY, ID and MT. > [@](#): > > Missouri is the one I often question. Writer William Least Heat Moon is from Missouri, and he commented in “Blue Highways” that everybody in every part of the country wanted to include Missouri in some area other than theirs. Midwesterners thought he was from the South, Westerners thought he was an Easterner, Southerners thought he was a Northerner, etc. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/31 "2007-09-27T23:22:11Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] FWIW, I have. [/QUOTE] I kinda guessed that. Just from poking around Wikipedia, these regional terms can get pretty nebulous. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/32 "2007-09-27T23:32:14Z")
Well, for what it is worth, [here is the official designation by the Census Bureau](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Census_Regions_and_Divisions.PNG). You will see that the four official regions are the West, Midwest, South and Northeast, but that these are subdivided into the Pacific and Mountain, West North Central and East North Central, West South Central, East South Central and South Atlantic, and Middle Atlantic and New England divisions. Of those, I’d say general usage includes Pacific, Mountain, Mid Atlantic and New England. The rest are simply ignored by all right thinking folk. 😃 The historical usage of the term “Midwest” can be read at [Wikipedia: Midwestern United States](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwest). I would say that most people would consider Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri to be Midwestern, even though they aren’t quite in the old core of the Middle Western states; I think that Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma usually are thought of as Plains or Great Plains states, along with the Dakotas and Iowa. ---
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/33 "2007-09-27T23:35:33Z")
[QUOTE=T\_SQUARE] Missouri is the one I often question. [/QUOTE] Having grown up in Missouri and lived the vast majority of my 35 years there, I have never heard it discussed as anything other then Midwest. Thats being on the KC side of things now. St Louis is much more eastern oriented. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/34 "2007-09-27T23:41:53Z")
[QUOTE=Miscue] It is absolutely and for damn sure not the south. [/QUOTE] I don’t know about that. It’s the place the Southern Indian tribes were sent, there was a large migration there from the Southern states, you can hear Southern accents there, they’re football-crazy, and you can get grits for breakfast and barbecue for dinner. Seems pretty southern to me. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/35 "2007-09-27T23:49:34Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] That’s the thing. You have some states in there that don’t quite count as the South, even though they’re south of what I consider the Midwest. Texas is one of them. Oklahoma is another. edit: Chronos’s suggestion is one that works for me. [/QUOTE] I grew up right on the Northwestern Louisiana/East Texas line. The Sabine River was the only thing that separated us. I knew I was Southern so the people that grew up across the river were too because we intermingled in every way possible. My Fort Worth raised mother says Fort Worth is where the West begins so she can claim dual citizenship while the people in Dallas are simply Texas Southerners. Texas is bigger than France so I don’t have much problem with them having regional breakdowns. East Texas is definitely Southern however. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/36 "2007-09-27T23:49:47Z")
I think I’ve heard the weatherman refer to it as one of the “lower midwestern states”. I wouldn’t call it Southwest…it just doesn’t have the same vibe. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/37 "2007-09-27T23:52:29Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] East Texas is definitely Southern however. [/QUOTE] And West Texas is most definitely Southwest. I’ve always considered Oklahoma to be a Great Plains state, part of the great flatness that stretches from the North Pole to Amarillo. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/38 "2007-09-27T23:55:23Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] I don’t know about that. It’s the place the Southern Indian tribes were sent, there was a large migration there from the Southern states, you can hear Southern accents there, they’re football-crazy, and you can get grits for breakfast and barbecue for dinner. Seems pretty southern to me. [/QUOTE] I can agree with that. Part of my family including my brother lives in Northwestern Arkansas which isn’t far from the Oklahoma border. I have been all the way to Tulsa and not noticed big shift away from Southern culture. I would say the same thing about Southern Missouri. Then again, I may be too liberal about my definition of the South. I used to travel for work one week a month to the Ohio/Indiana border. I was shocked to find that some people in Indiana and Ohio have some of the strongest Southern accents around and part of the culture to match. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/39 "2007-09-27T23:58:46Z")
[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow] As a Texan, I think we simply refer to our region as “Texas.” [/QUOTE] Back in Monterey, we referred to that part of the country as “Back East.” ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735/40 "2007-09-28T00:05:23Z")
[QUOTE=yabob] Nevada, maybe. Utah is “Rocky Mountain States”, which is where I tend to place Nevada also, along with CO, WY, ID and MT. [/QUOTE] What part of the Rocky Mountains is in Nevada? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-oklahoma/420735.md?page=3)