Is Eastern Montana a part of the Midwest? (Billings: gated, live)

[MimzyMusic]

I mean if people consider Pittsburgh a part of the Midwest, why not Eastern Montana?

Geographically speaking, Eastern Montana is definitely in the north-central United States.

In a lot of Eastern Montana, farming is more common than ranching.

What do you think?

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by MimzyMusic

I mean if people consider Pittsburgh a part of the Midwest, why not Eastern Montana?

Geographically speaking, Eastern Montana is definitely in the north-central United States.

In a lot of Eastern Montana, farming is more common than ranching.

What do you think?

I always figured the "midwest" kinda depends on what you're talking about. Geographically, I consider it anywhere between the Mississippi River and the Continental Divide. Culturally, irrigated farming is definitely "midwest", but somewhere along the start of the high plains and badlands, where ranching takes over from dryland farming, it begins to merge with the "old west", which I also consider to stop at the Divide. West of the Divide is the "Pacific Northwest" in my book. Even when it's got cowboys and indians and suchlike, the flavour is different -- might be cuz of the mining and timber cultures, which are quite different from farming and ranching.

Anyway, that's my perception. Your eyeballs may vary.

Who the heck thinks Pittsburgh is in the Midwest??!

Trivia: Most film and TV that is set in NYC is actually filmed in Pittsburgh, because it's visually close enough to pass for NYC, and it's WAAAAAAAAY cheaper to film there, out of reach of the NYC unions. The Equalizer is one good example (all the NYC locations were actually Pittsburgh).

[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.

[seven of nine]

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.

thanks for my morning laugh!

[TypicalCalifornian]

I lived in Wisconsin and Montana for various periods in the 50's, 60's and 70's and visit both several times a year since. Interstate highways and TV have largely homogenized America, but to the extent people are different, it's because of the mythos, or stories they tell themselves. My granchildren in Montana have no sense of their ancestory, or interest. They could move to Illinois and not miss a beat, and vice versa.

[jmgg]

To me, the west starts in the western half of ND, SD, NE, KS,OK, & TX.

All up and down the US at this point the land and economy essentially shifts from mostly farming to mostly ranching.

There is nothing in eastern Montana that really resembles the midwestern farm country.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by jmgg

There is nothing in eastern Montana that really resembles the midwestern farm country.

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!!

[rickers]

The "Golden Triangle" part of central Montana may be in the interior west but the towns and people are very mid-western like. There is also much more farming than ranching.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by rickers

The "Golden Triangle" part of central Montana may be in the interior west but the towns and people are very mid-western like. There is also much more farming than ranching.

Yep.. Montana is a transition state encompassing both Midwest and Old West, farming and ranching.

This is a good thing, really -- gives MT a more diverse and flexible agriculture base.

[TypicalCalifornian]

If one uses the agricultural measure the west begins at the 100th meridian, i.e., west of which irrigation is required, or as someone mentioned dryland farming. I'm reading a fascinating book "Cadillac Desert" which tells the history of the west, or water, which in the end becomes interchangeable. It took a lot of guts and water to move west of the 100th meridian in the 19th century which I think shaped the people, that is until the latest generation.