Middle America vs. heartland vs. Midwest (homes, school, college)
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I tend to think of the Midwest as the Great Lakes states plus the Plaines....everything from Ohio to the Dakotas and all the way down to Oklahoma.
The "heartland" is the Central Plaines (Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa) and to stretch it maybe Illinois and Indiana, though not Ohio.
To me "Middle America" includes everything in the heartland and the Midwest plus some of the Mountain States (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah). Don't really know if Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico count.
I tend to think of the Midwest as the Great Lakes states plus the Plaines....everything from Ohio to the Dakotas and all the way down to Oklahoma.
The "heartland" is the Central Plaines (Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa) and to stretch it maybe Illinois and Indiana, though not Ohio.
To me "Middle America" includes everything in the heartland and the Midwest plus some of the Mountain States (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah). Don't really know if Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico count.
Missouri and Iowa are not plains states, not even close. I've heard the heartland definition applied to both the westernmost Midwest states (MO, IA, MN) and the easternmost Great Plains states (OK, KS, SD, ND). But MO and IA are not Plains states by any stretch of the matter. They look nothing like Plains states and much more like the Midwest, and they don't get the weather of Plains states. They are also very hilly, quite uncharacteristics for a plains state, which is generally flat.They have a lot more trees than the Plains states too and are much greener. Plains states are not really green at all, much more treeless and brown. For middle America, I've heard everything from the Lower Midwest and Easternmost Great Plains states to every state immediately west of the Mississippi from Minnesota to Louisiana.
The official Midwestern states are Kansas (also part of the Great Plains), South Dakota (also part of the Great Plains), Nebraska (also part of the Great Plains), North Dakota (also part of the Great Plains), Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Kentucky and West Virginia are rarely if ever considered Midwestern. West Virginia is more Mid-Atlantic and Southern, Kentucky is officially a Southern state.
Kentucky is definitely southern. West Virginia is Appalachian, and I think that cultural definition also covers parts of Maryland, Virginia (if you go to Winchester its nothing like Richmond or Norfolk), and Pennsylvania. That Appalachian definition I think takes precedence over any other regional definition.
I'm not sure where Pittsburgh is. I've heard it described as both East Coast but sometimes as the beginning as the Midwest.
The Great Plains has had a very fast decline in population as they continue to lose most of the younger residents. In many rural counties in the Great Plains over 25% of the population is over 65 and the frontier is starting to open up again. However, most of the Great Plains was oversettled starting with the Homestead Act of 1862. The regional centers are the towns that are doing well, with all of the smaller towns gradually becoming ghosts towns. A good example of rural decay would be the counties in far southern Nebraska along the Kansas border and the counties in Kansas along the Nebraska border. Most of these areas had more people in 1900 than they do today.
Its surprising that people are leaving the Plains. Is it because illegal immigrants are taking all the agricultural jobs?
I spent most of my life (22 years) in the suburbs of DC and am desperate to flee this place. A lot people I know from more rural areas here hate suburbanization/urbanization and aspire to the rural lifestyle. I thought American culture and mentality has always been about leaving the East and moving West and leaving the cold, soulless, crowded cities for the wide open spaces of the heartland.
Well the "heartland" has a special appeal. Whether its the Americana imagery of Friday night football in small towns, to Main Street businesses, to grain silos and cornfields. Its always the backdrop for presidential elections and "heartland values" are something candidates ignore that their own risk.
As a recent college grad whose applying to professional school most likely in another major urban area, I can say that cities are good to visit. its a good place to party, go to bars and sports games and concerts. College here was fun and the bar scene around DC is fantastic. But when it comes to settling down and raising a family, woudln't you want to be away from the pollution, crime, corruption, vices, coldness and dangers of the city? Especially the East and West Coast cities?
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