Alaska vs Hawaii. Couldn’t be more different.
North Dakota and South Dakota are so similar they didn’t even bother to come up with different names for them. Why not just have Dakota?
Is it all right if U.P. in the lakes?
Different how? There are so many ways states can be different.
Size (physical), size (population), urban vs rural, climate, political and cultural differences, demographics, etc.
Not any more. The oil boom in western NC has made it quite a bit different from SD. Economy, unemployment, tax base, all that kind of stuff.
(If they had done it like they should have back in 1889, and created East Dakota & West Dakota, then they would definitely be very different states!)
Why not, you should see what the fish do in it.
Most similar- ND and SD, MS and AL, NE and IA.
Most different- NV and UT, TX and MA, AK and DE
They were also never that similar in the first place. Western South Dakota has actual honest-to-goodness mountains whereas North Dakota is all prairie. Rapid City is also a genuinely big city for the region, whereas even post-oil boom Williston and Dickinson are still pretty small. South Dakota also has a much larger Native American population (mostly in the west of the state) that I think gives it a very different feel than overwhelmingly white North Dakota.
Do any foreigners visit the US thinking about what states they’d see? I would think most people visiting are thinking about specific cities, areas, or landmarks. I had the impression that many non-Americans don’t realize how big the US is. I wouldn’t give advice on what states to see or not see, I’d give advice on specific cities and make sure they realize the distance involved. That for example if they wanted to see New York City and Niagara Falls they are both in the state of New York, but that there are 400 miles in between them.
Looking out my office window onto Main Street, Woonsocket the word I would use to describe the scene isn’t scary, but sad. Spinning my office chair allows me a view of three fairly large vacant, or mostly vacant buildings. However, crossing the border into Blackstone, MA is a less obvious transition than going into Bellingham.
I don’t know if they’re “the most different”, but they were certainly the biggest contrasts I experienced between states.
I once went from Salt Lake City, Utah to New Orleans, Louisiana for a conference. I came the closest to Culture Shock I ever did while remaining in the US.
I went from a Utah November winter, cold and blustery, to New Orleans hot and sultry
I went from Utah, where you can’t get anything stronger than 3.2 beer (unless you joined a private club) to New Orleans, where they sell drinks practically on the Street. They’ll gladly put your Hurricane in a paper cup and wrap up your Hurricane Glass as a souvenir, letting you walk the streets while sipping your alcohol.
I went from a place where the "strippers’ can’t remove anything further than a two-piece bathing suit to somewhere where they not only get completely nude, but have mirrors so you can see the girls as you walk down Bourbon Street.
You go from straitlaced Salt Lake City, which actively worked to shut down the X-rated movies and stripper bars (such as they were), to prevent the showing of R-rated movies on cable (they didn’t succeed) and censored things on PBS*, to Bourbon Street in New Orleans, famed for its “Show Your Tits” Mardi Gras, blatant sex shops on Bourbon Street, and general perceived licentiousness.
(I also went from a place with Hot Jazz to a placed that only purchased the Jazz.)
Huge physical and mental differences there.
*Yet the big magazine store in downtown Salt Lake not only had a large (behind swinging doors) adult magazine section, but even put the issue with Vanna White partially nude on the cover out in a huge window display.
I kind of suspect that the big states that border a lot of other states, like Texas, California and New York, kind of mess the concept up, in that they’re large enough to where regional sensibilities and attitudes that may be present in neighboring states may be present in the adjoining part of the state, but not the whole.
I’ll use Texas as an example; in the D/FW area, you get a lot of cultural overlap with Oklahoma, and a lot of people from OK come south with all their abominable Sooner garbage on their cars. But if you’re further south, in the Houston area, you’re far more likely to see LSU stuff on people’s cars, and even the native cuisine is rather similar to Louisiana due to a lot of cross-pollination between S. Louisiana and SE Texas. Similarly, you see a lot of New Mexico-similarity in West Texas and parts of the Panhandle.
I imagine that Northern California has a lot of Oregonian influence (and vice-versa), while Arizona has a lot bigger influence on S. California than anywhere else but Mexico. The same goes for New York- eastern NY state probably has a certain Vermont/MA/CT feel depending on where you are, while southern NY state probably has a certain Pennsylvania influence.
As a resident of North Dakota, I’d say that the two Dakotas are extremely similar. Economically, both are doing quite well. Both have unemployment rates among the 10 lowest in the nation, for instance. Culturally and geographically they are identical; there’s just no way to tell a standard ND farm town from an SD farm town. Granted, I haven’t explored the western end of South Dakota much.
Now the contrast between the Dakotas and New York, or any other East Coast state, is sharp. One of the most notable things is that in New York there’s a sharp distinction between rich and poor neighborhoods, and the rich and poor do everything separately: separate restaurants, separate shopping malls and stores, separate modes of transportation, separate newspapers, separate ways of dressing, separate schools. In the Dakotas, everyone just blends together. Although based on my experience, that’s even more true in Alaska and Montana.
There are spots where the transition isn’t obvious. But even in the nicer areas of quiet streets and homes you can see the roads fall apart as you enter Woonsocket, and you know those homeowners wish they were on the Blackstone side. Doesn’t help that the level of government misconduct is appalling even by RI standards. OTOH almost anywhere you enter RI you can tell the difference in the roads right away.
That’s a good call. Even though both states have been heavily influenced by religion the result is a stark contrast. I don’t know anything about the food in Utah, but that’s sounds like an area where they’ll be on opposite ends of the scale also.
Also of note is North Smithfield Dowling Village siphoning off the businesses from Walnut Hill, along with the tax base. The empty plazas are indicative of the direction Woonsocket is going. sad
For most different I would say Florida and Alaska. Very different climates obviously, but also different demographics, population density, politics etc.
Most same, possibly possibly north and south Dakota.
The US has a version of the “stupid foreign tourist” joke along that line. Typically the story is about tourists from the Netherlands and/or Belgium who try to rent a car in New York City in order to take a day trip to see the Grand Canyon. In other versions, they expect to casually drive from NYC to Los Angeles in a few hours.
Oregon and Washington have a great deal of geographic similarities that spill over into politics and culture. They share Cascades and coast ranges. They have the biggest population centers in lowlands between those. Their largest cities are sea ports but well away from the ocean proper.
West of the mountains it’s wet and well treed, with a lot of agriculture in the valleys.
East, much drier except for scattered mountains. Lots of range/wheat land. More intensive agriculture where water can be brought in.
So, quite liberal in those west side lowlands. Conservative elsewhere (which makes up the bulk of each state’s area). But an overall appreciation of nature and the need to preserve it.
Other states with such a wet-dry divide don’t work out this way. E.g., California is more split North-South in terms of climate. But, for example, the LA area is in the dry zone but isn’t a conservative area. OTOH, Orange County just south of it is.
Massachusetts and New Mexico: very different places, yet both are very American places with different styles, climates, people and customs.
On the other hand, Massachusetts and Connecticut have a fair amount in common, but the Bay State feels more genuinely Yankee to me, is far less influenced by New York culture; and it has more mill towns and mill cities, though Connecticut has its share.
Alas, as to Massachusetts (I’m a native, as you can probably tell), I think it has more in common with New Hampshire and even Maine than Connecticut once you get outside the I95/Route 128 belt. Once you’re away from the greater Boston area Massachusetts isn’t nearly so New Age sophisticated as one might imagine.
To stick with New England for a bit more: the state of Maine is quite different in every way from the state of Arizona.
Then there are clusters, regions, some more obvious than others. The South has been mentioned, and it’s worth mentioning also the border South-North Chesapeake area as being made up of states that have a good deal in common.
Same with the Gulf (Of Mexico) states of the South (Louisiana, Mississippi, East Texas).
Upper, mountain Southern states have a fair amount in common, as a couple (Tennesssee and Kentucky) have been mentioned. I may as well throw in North Carolina and West Virginia into the mix.
I’ve never been to Idaho, but given its location, climate and increasingly Mormon favoring demographics I suspect its darn near the opposite of Florida in more ways than not.
Least similar states that border each other: Washington and Idaho.
It’s CA and NV.
Nevada is all sorts of awesome.