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i've heard this argument to exclude the Plains from Midwest and count them with the mountains and west coast as part of the West. i don't really buy it. why can't a dry place be midwestern?
I don't see why that would make a place "non-Midwestern." I see those areas as very, very Midwestern.
Usually, the people who make these types of statements are from places like Ohio, which they see as the "core of the Midwest." In actuality, Ohio is on the eastern fringe of the Midwest, and arguably not Midwestern at all (more like the Northeast or South, depending on where you are in the state). The Plains are the heart of the Midwest.
i've heard this argument to exclude the Plains from Midwest and count them with the mountains and west coast as part of the West. i don't really buy it. why can't a dry place be midwestern?
I think the argument is not so much the plains should be counted with the mountains but more as a stand alone. I have never heard someone make the argument that plaines should be considered part of the west coast. I think the general argument breaks down the U.S. as:
Northeast
East
South
Midwest
Plaines
Rocky Mtn West
West Coast
The main argument is the residents of the plaines identify more with the mountain west than the midwest. I think the general landscape of the plaines is very different from the midwest and mountain west - thus it's own region. I will set up poll in some of the plains states - North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas to see if those citizens identify themselves as mtn. west, midwest or plaines. Yes, I realize the plaines extend into MT, WY, CO, etc. so get off my butt.
It's not as if places like Michigan and Wisconsin have much in common with Nebraska or Kansas. IMO "Midwest" is too broad, I wish they'd just do away with the term altogether and stick with Plains States and Great Lakes States.
Make sure to include Minnesota and Iowa in your Plains states polls. Cities like Mankato, MN, Marshall, MN and Sioux City, IA are very much part of the Plains.
I feel like we've beat this subject to a bloody pulp...
The Great Plains is PART OF the Midwest. The Upper Midwest, Great Plains, Great Lakes region, etc. are all part of the Midwestern region, defined by the US Census bureau as the states East of Colorado, North of Arkansas and Kentucky, and West of Pennsylvania.
I think of the midwest as the old Northwest Territories.
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