Is Eastern Montana a part of the Midwest? (transit, work)

[MimzyMusic]

Hmmm, is Great Falls kinda an anomaly? It almost seems like an Upper Midwest colony right before you get to the Rockies. The land is more agricultural than a lot of far eastern Montana and western North Dakota too.

[gratefulbread]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plains

Technically the Midwest and Great Plains are two totally different regions geographically, and topographically. The Midwest really would be the eastern Plains states over to the Ohio/Pennsylvania line area, so Pittsburgh kinda is. The Great Plains extend from like, Lincoln, NE and Sioux Falls, SD to Denver, Billings, and so on. But all call it their own, since it isn't set in stone. But from my travels through all the states, I started seeing the "Midwest this, Midwest that" disappear just west of said cities, and they call it Great Plains from there, etc..... But whatever. Thats what I like to call it. Let's just go with state names, to make it easier.

So to jump to the point, the flat prairies of eastern Montana is probably considered the Plains, judging from the link above.

However the Census Bureau does call the Plains states "Midwest" if you click below, yet is contradicts itself in the "Definition" section on that page, saying that the "Tornado Alley" states are called the Great Plains. AAAA! There we have it! It is all opinion folks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States

[Jbechtel]

It's like asking the question, Where does the midwest start if your back east? The New Yorkers tend to make that decision with states they don't feel come up to their high standards with being a part of the 'poche' eastern states. They would consider Ohio as part of the midwest even though it's really in the east. Isn't eastern Monatana in Saskatchewan anyway? Western Montana is in the Olympic Penninsula this year with all the rain we've had. Yicks!

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by gratefulbread

Great Plains - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kinda fun coincidence how the 100th Meridian almost divides the country almost exactly in half. I wonder what the actual land area is on each side, how close to even it really is?

[Dea13]

Originally Posted by MT Independent

For me that dividing line between the classic Midwestern topography and the that of what I have always envisioned as "western" comes in Chamberlain, SD where you cross the Missouri River. From that point on, you are in the West that is seen in the movies or has been written about in books. Before that divide eastern SD could be any place in IA, IL or MN. After it, it has a look that is found nowhere else but the West.

I think of the Missouri River as the crossing point also! Living in WI but traveling to WY/MT every year as soon as we get to Chamberlain I feel like we've left the Midwest. The feel of the eastern part of Montana, at least to this Midwestern girl, is completely different. The feel of the air, the look of the land - not better/not worse, just different.

I don't really find too much difference between the people of Montana and the WI people (now I'm talking real WI people and not the bigger cities like Milwaukee people). You get away from Milwaukee or any bigger city and you get the people waving going down the roads, the neighbors helping each other, strangers talking to you in small towns, etc. That's something I love about smaller cities in WI and pretty much everywhere in Montana (except maybe not so much downtown Bozeman).

And the comment about being cold hearted and unempathetic - I don't think that's true. It seems WI & MT share that view that you take care of your own and you don't expect everything handed to you. You get what you work for. It's a matter of respect and trust. It may take a bit for us to warm up to new people but once you've won us over we're there for you no matter what.

[gaduchman]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Dunno about now, but farmers around Billings used to grow a lot of corn. Surprised the heck out of me first time I saw that -- if the horizon was flat, I coulda sworn I was in Iowa!!

Well they grow corn in Wyoming too - but that doesn't make them part of the midwest!

[MontanaGuy]

People think about the location of the midwest very differently in various parts of the country. I met someone recently from Michigan which she considers the midwest. Growing up in Montana I always thought of anything from Chicago to the East Coast as "back east" and I thought of the midwest as being places like Nebraska but not much further east than that but now I think now that I was wrong. The Mississippi River is generally recognized as where the east and west have a dividing line and in fact the Arch of St. Louis is a monument to those who were travelling to the west back in the 1800's (obviously it was built quite a bit later). I think the most widely accepted area that is considered to be the midwest is mostly in the eastern half of the country but it would include the Dakotas and go as far east as Ohio and as far south as Missouri. That's what the Census Bureau considers to be the midwest as well.

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by anonymoose

Eastern Montana is very little like the Midwest. The midwest is flat corn country. E. Montana is high desert and its economy is based on cattle ranching and oil extraction/refinement. The midwest has many large cities; Montana has none. The Midwest in crowded, which E. Montana is not. The Midwest has a large black population; E. Montana does not. Well-educated people are not rare in the Midwest; in E. Montana they're not only rare, they're widely distrusted. The Midwest has none of the "cowboy mystique" that is ubiquitous in E. Montana.

On the whole, people in Montana generally are pretty hard-hearted and unempathetic. I don't know how that compares with the Midwest as a whole, but most people in Milwaukee seemed like that, too, when I lived there.

Actually, Eastern Montana is the high PLAINS, not desert. The area gets too much rain on the average to be a desert, at least not according to the Koppen defintion, which sets the upper limit of precipitation at ten inches of rain a year. In my own personal experience, which has been in the southeastern part of the state, I have seen rolling hills with forests, (between Ashland and Broadus, off U.S. 212) and plains with short grass(around Broadus and east).

Having said this, back to the topic. Perhaps anything west of the 100th meridian to state boundaries could be considered a transition zone from Midwest to West. It is certainly a transition zone in climactic terms.

[Speedteacher]

Originally Posted by anonymoose

Eastern Montana is very little like the Midwest. The midwest is flat corn country. E. Montana is high desert and its economy is based on cattle ranching and oil extraction/refinement. The midwest has many large cities; Montana has none. The Midwest in crowded, which E. Montana is not. The Midwest has a large black population; E. Montana does not. Well-educated people are not rare in the Midwest; in E. Montana they're not only rare, they're widely distrusted. The Midwest has none of the "cowboy mystique" that is ubiquitous in E. Montana.

On the whole, people in Montana generally are pretty hard-hearted and unempathetic. I don't know how that compares with the Midwest as a whole, but most people in Milwaukee seemed like that, too, when I lived there.

I'm not sure where your experience in Montana was, but that is the opposite of my experience. I was born in Miles City and went to high school in Forsyth. I lived in Eastern Montana for quite some time. I have lived outside Washington DC and currently live in Indiana.
Geographically, I don't really think of Montana (any part of it) as Midwest. Culturally, I find many similarities between Montana and Indiana. Enough that I would lump them together as a 'Midwest Culture'. One thing Indiana really doesn't have that Montana does is that 'fend for ourselves, old west' type of attitude. We talk about government here in Indiana with indifference. People from Montana seem to keep the government at arms length... preferring the government stay out of their business (total generalization, but I guess that's the point).
So, my from my viewpoint, having lived throughout the country is that Montana is not part of the midwest, but the residents share some traditional midwest traits.

TJ

[jmgg]

The end of the midwest is much easier than most of you are making it. Look around where you are. Where most of the rural men quit wearing seed corn caps with redwing boots and start wearing cowboy hats and boots, that's where the transition is.

Case closed. Now wasn't that easy?