# Where is the Mid-West? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 5, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987 "2011-11-05T21:15:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/41 "2011-11-06T23:40:17Z")
I live in MO but was raised on the west coast, so (I’m not saying rightly) I sort of conflate the midwest and the plains states, but differentiate them from the mountain states. So, typical west coast, ‘uh, flyover without good skiing?’ But did not grow up in a place with finegrained concepts like ‘rustbelt’ and ‘lakes’ and ‘mid-south’ and such. And, man, Missouri is weird. It’s so mideastern/midwestern/plains/southern. And the state’s civil war history is totally convoluted and confusing. ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/42 "2011-11-07T00:11:41Z")
I live in WI. I agree with QtM et al. - WI, MI, MN, IA, OH, IL, IN, and sometimes MO. The farm v. ranch divide makes a lot of sense. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/43 "2011-11-07T00:32:08Z")
> [@SeldomSeen](#): > > Or have you fallen prey to the [Idaho/Iowa syndrome](http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/03/03/1550304/when-will-they-ever-learn-idaho.html) > > It’s Idaho…rhymes with potato 😃 > > SS > coming to you from the terra incognita of the Idaho-Oregon border country Hey, I never claimed there was any logic behind it. There’s a part of it that’s sort of “plainy,” and I didn’t want to leave it all alone in the Rocky Mountain category, so it got lumped in with Montana. No Idaho/Iowa syndrome here, either. I’ve driven through both, and I can stay awake through Idaho :D. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/44 "2011-11-07T01:18:20Z")
> [@picker](#): > > I live in WI. > > I agree with QtM et al. - WI, MI, MN, IA, OH, IL, IN, and sometimes MO. > > The farm v. ranch divide makes a lot of sense. Then Kansas and Nebraska should be on your list. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/45 "2011-11-07T07:08:59Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > I’m a New Yorker, but I’ve always thought of the “Midwest” to be the plains (not necessarily “Great Plains”, just those with the lager part being non-mountainous) states that are not a) amongst the original 13 colonies (that’s “East” to me), b) part of the Confederacy (that’s “South” to me, and the overlap of a and b are “Southeast”) and c) east of the Rockies. So to me, the region includes the Great Plains, which seems to me as a geographic and cultural continuation of the states immediately to the east (i.e., the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas as continued from Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri). And Oklahoma always “felt” to me to be more of a continuation of Kansas than of Arkansas. Perhaps it’s more similar to the Texas panhandle than to Kansas, but if we’re not splitting states, I have to say Texas as a whole has a distinct character. I’m also a New Yorker and my feelings are about the same. I mentally divide the United States into four regions: the East, the Mid-West, the South, and the West. Texas, in my opinion, was once part of the South but is now part of the West. ---
**Author:** ![Bibliothecarius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@Bibliothecarius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliothecarius)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/46 "2011-11-07T11:33:13Z")
Not in the Midwest. Class it as Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota. I guess I sort of class the Great Plains as a subregion of the Midwest. The mountain states to me start from the Dakotas down to Colorado. Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky are the northern part of the South, along with West Virginia and Virginia. Pennsylvania belongs to the Mid-Atlantic states. ---
**Author:** ![foxymoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d26b3c/32.png) [@foxymoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foxymoron)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/47 "2011-11-07T14:21:30Z")
Crap. I failed to vote for Iowa, so add one for them. I live in Nebraska and consider it to be part of the midwest. But sometimes I think of this region as the Great Plains, or the Plains States. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/48 "2011-11-07T15:29:51Z")
I’ve lived in Eastern states, Mid-Western states and I spent a decade in Western New York. I’d say that culturally, economically, and linguistically NY State West of Syracuse, particularly Erie County, is a Mid-Western state. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/49 "2011-11-07T16:46:44Z")
Another @#$%! poll where I agree with everyone! Bah! I live in Arkansas and consider it to be in the South East rather than the Midwest. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/50 "2011-11-07T22:32:22Z")
Being from New England, we pretty much consider the midwest to begin just west of Worcester, Mass. Only slightly kidding there. Kansas and north is Midwest. Oklahoma is part of the south (more like Texas) Colorado and thereabouts is the Mountain West. So, basically, Kansas and north, then everything to east until you get to one of the 13 original states, excluding Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/51 "2011-11-07T22:48:46Z")
I’m getting here late and my voting off the top of my head was a little inconsistent. For some reason I considered Kansas a Midwestern state but not Nebraska and the Dakotas. I consider the Great Plains states to be their own distinct region, but this line from Wikipedia probably better defines how I think of things. > [@](#): > > The U.S. Census Bureau further divides the Midwest into two distinct regions, the East North Central “Great Lakes States,” which include Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota (Midwestern states that come in contact with a Great Lake), and the West North Central “Great Plains States,” which include Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas (states that are located within the Great Plains region of the country). The Great Lakes and the Great Plains are both distinct subsets of the Midwest. The Mississippi River makes a tidy little boundary too. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/52 "2011-11-08T08:46:29Z")
Up until I learned better on the Dope, I thought the midwest had to be east of the Mississippi, probably due to some misremembering from my geography class in junior high. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/53 "2011-11-09T06:52:16Z")
10 votes for Idaho?! It’s a day trip to Seattle from Idaho for goodness sake. ---
**Author:** ![breaking-reality](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@breaking-reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaking-reality)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/54 "2011-11-09T14:38:07Z")
I live in Illinois and consider it to be the mid-west, as well as most of my neighboring states. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/55 "2011-11-09T16:04:30Z")
Ohio is, in my mind, split among several regions. Northeast Ohio, where I grew up, seems like the northeast to me. Along the river, especially Cincinnati, it’s southern. Most of the state from Dayton north, and from Columbus west, is midwestern. It’s a land of many contrasts. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/56 "2011-11-09T16:37:48Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > The midwest is WI, MI, IL, MN, IA, MO, IN, OH. > > otherwise there’s the great plains, the mountain states, the west coast, the southern states, and the northeast. > > A case can be made that MN, IA, and MO belong to the great plains. > > QtM, WI resident and farm owner. (But not a farmer.) Absolutely. Preach it. This is exactly how I voted. (FTR I grew up in the Northeast (MA), lived in the Midwest for 13 years (IL) and now live in the South (TN). ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/57 "2011-11-09T17:03:28Z")
> [@Bootis](#): > > 10 votes for Idaho?! It’s a day trip to Seattle from Idaho for goodness sake. Exactly! I hope it’s not terribly snarky to ask if those who voted for Idaho thought they were clicking one of the other “I” states. Then again, Montana, icon of the American West also got 10 votes so there’s no telling. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/58 "2011-11-09T20:11:24Z")
> [@Bootis](#): > > 10 votes for Idaho?! It’s a day trip to Seattle from Idaho for goodness sake. I was one of those (I would also have voted for Utah, I didn’t realize it wasn’t on the poll until after I’d voted). “Midwest” to me is kind of a catch-all for states that aren’t in any of the other regions. Idaho isn’t east, it isn’t south, it isn’t southwest, it’s nowhere near the coast so it definitely isn’t west. In my head, it gets lumped in with all of the rest of the midwest states. So does Utah ---
**Author:** ![Ruby\_Slippers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/94ad74/32.png) [@Ruby\_Slippers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby_Slippers)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/59 "2011-11-09T20:48:22Z")
Born and raised in small-town western Ohio and grew up thinking it was the midwest. Then I moved to DC and at one point, worked with people from Kansas. They scoffed at my claim to be a midwesterner. Now I’m back in Ohio among people who almost uniformly think of it as part of the midwest. I now tend to think of the midwest in pretty broad terms, but not too far north (except Michigan) and not too far south. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987/60 "2011-11-09T20:48:47Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > I was one of those (I would also have voted for Utah, I didn’t realize it wasn’t on the poll until after I’d voted). > > “Midwest” to me is kind of a catch-all for states that aren’t in any of the other regions. Idaho isn’t east, it isn’t south, it isn’t southwest, it’s nowhere near the coast so it definitely isn’t west. In my head, it gets lumped in with all of the rest of the midwest states. So does Utah Ah- you’re confusing “West Coast” with “The West”… The settings of most Westerns, ie, “The West” are also nowhere near the coast. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-mid-west/601987.md?page=2)