Would anyone in their right mind consider Denver a Midwestern city?

[MimzyMusic]

Originally Posted by tfox

I see the "west" as actually two separate regions. There's the Pacific Coast and the Mountain West. Denver is clearly in the mountain west along with the rest of our timezone and the inland portions of the pacific states.

Likewise, I see the "midwest" also as two separate regions: the Great Lakes and the Great Plains. Rapid City, for example, is clearly the latter and Cleveland, say, is the former. Places like Omaha, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, and Des Moines fall uncomfortably in-between. Once you get to the Mississippi (for example, the twin cities), I'd say you're safely in the "Great Lakes" region.

Denver probably fits best in the "Mountain West" region, but a strong case could be made for making it at the western end of the "Great Plains" region.

In reality, I see it as both. I see Denver is the capital of two regions: the Mountain West and the Great Plains. As we say we're "The Rocky Mountain Empire" and also the "Queen City of the Plains." I don't see any competitors for the title on either side. In the mountain west, the only competitor could be Phoenix, but IMO it's far less of a "capital city" than Denver is, despite its greater size. We'll call Phoenix the regional capital of the "Interior Southwest," a sub-division of the Mountain West. The great plains region is also empty of competitors for the title of capital. A case could be made for Omaha, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, or Dallas -- but all four are more on the outer edge of the great plains or outside it altogether. Denver seems a better geographical fit for the great plains that Dallas, and much higher stature than Omaha, Kansas City, and OKC combined.

Being the unofficial capital of two major subregions is one reason why Denver's national stature is higher than you would expect for a city of 550k with 2.5M metro population. If we were located in, say, Texas, we'd be the sixth largest city, third largest metro, and probably would be little known nationally.

Could you place the western half of SoDak in the Mountain West too? It observes Mountain Time and has the very Western Black Hills.

[vegaspilgrim]

Excellent post, tfox! I always enjoy having philosophical discussions about regional geography.

I don't think Denver is the capital of anything... except for the capital of Colorado. At one point in time Denver may have been a true regional urban center with a well defined hinterland spreading over the western United States. Today though, Denver is no longer the only game in town. Other interior west cities like Salt Lake City, Boise, Spokane, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, Las Vegas, are all full service cities in their own right with their own hinterlands. The only areas that Denver really can "claim" as its own backcountry are the whole state of Colorado, the eastern half of Wyoming and Montana, and possibly western South Dakota (and btw, Rapid City/ the black hills-- that's pure western in my book, nothing midwestern about those parts). And what all these areas have in common is outside of the Front Range and a handful of really small cities, there's hardly anybody living there.

I think it's interesting to see how national and international corporations and firms divide up their regional offices. More often than not, the Denver office tends to be placed in the same region as Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, part of what companies call their "Central" or "South-Central" region. I personally think this is a pile of crap as I do believe that Denver really fits in with the western states more. However it's an unfortunate fact of life.

In terms of architecture, Denver is 100% midwestern. Denver does not resemble the desert southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, southern Nevada) or California whatsoever when it comes to architecture-- whether we're talking new or old.

I think Denver is a western city, but it's literally at the easternmost edge of the West. The great plains east of Denver I think of as a true undefined wasteland, neither part of the true west nor the real midwest/east. It's a city that serves as the gateway to a vast kingdom of mountains and basins on one side, but on the edge of nowhere on the other.

[TheRefileric]

Colorado ain't a mid-western state or a western state. It's a state of confusion.