Is North Dakota the Midwest? (Fargo, Bismarck: home, gated, living)

[MimzyMusic]

Does North Dakota identify with the Midwest (Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, etc.)? It's a farming state, but it's more rugged than its eastern neighbors and has that cowboy thing going on.

[dutchinnd]

From what I've encountered from ND-born individuals: ND considers itself Midwest along w/ SD, NE, KS, IA and perhaps MN. They defintely consider MI and OH to be "out east" and WI, IL and IN are marginally but not truly midwestern.
So much depends on perspective . . .

[GraniteStater]

I would consider North Dakota to be part of the Great Plains sub-region. North Dakota is a Plains state along with South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. States in the Midwest are more lush and green with deciduous and coniferous forests. Crops in the Midwest core do not have to be irrigated compared with the Great Plains.

[mackinac81]

My mom's family grew up in Central Kansas, and they always thought of the plains as the "midwest", although they knew it was different from Iowa. Oddly enough, my mom thought of Michigan and Ohio as "back east"

I agree with Plains10. It's the midwest, but a sub-region within the midwest.

[FargoBison]

The far eastern edge of ND is definitely midwestern but once you get out to Bismarck it seems more Western or Great Plains in nature. The Red River Valley of the North seems to be border region between the two regions.

[roundball]

Originally Posted by FargoBison

The far eastern edge of ND is definitely midwestern but once you get out to Bismarck it seems more Western or Great Plains in nature. The Red River Valley of the North seems to be border region between the two regions.

Agree with this post.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by roundball

Agree with this post.

I do too. Once you hit the 100th meridian (about 1/2 way across the state) you leave the humid Midwest (farms) and enter the arid West (ranches). The area around Theodore Roosevelt National Park is nothing like you'll see in the midwest, it definitely has a Western look and feel. The ND state tourism ads they air on TV here in the Twin Cities definitely play up the state's "Westernness".

[ebitdadada]

I'd tend to agree with Fargo Bison but another thing to ponder:

From John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley in Search of America


"Someone must have told me about the Missouri River at Bismarck, North Dakota, or I must have read about it. In either case, I hadn't paid attention. I came on it in amazement. Here is where the map should fold. Here is the boundary between east and west. On the Bismarck side it is eastern landscape, eastern grass, with the look and smell of eastern America. Across the Missouri on the Mandan side, it is pure west, with brown grass and water scorings and small outcrops. The two sides of the river might well be a thousand miles apart."

[MikeyToo]

Originally Posted by MimzyMusic

Does North Dakota identify with the Midwest (Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, etc.)? It's a farming state, but it's more rugged than its eastern neighbors and has that cowboy thing going on.

Presently living on the central coast of California(moving back home to ND soon). Out here, if you say your going back east, it means you left California. To Californian's everything is out east when not in California, so consequently, there is no midwest..... Only east...

[Katiana]

I agree with MikeyToo about California. When I lived there, I was surprised to hear Illinois referred to as "back east". Re: N. Dakota, its as my DH says about Nebraska, his home state: "Mid-Plains" or "Great-West".