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Talk about a stereotypical thread. I take it you have never been to the western sides of most NE states. Jamestown, NY or Lake Erie? The Poconos, east PA, are rural as is west CT, VT or MA. If you want rural visit ME.
The Northeast, Midwest and South all have huge swaths of rural land. However, now that I've been to 47 states, I gotta say that the real RURAL region is the West. It's simply not nearly as developed as the eastern U.S.
There is a difference between say rural New England and the rural South
rural New England is speckled with Paper Mill-towns, Logging Towns, Fishing Villages, resort towns, etc. each surrounded by mostly woodlands. Honestly there are probably more farms in Suburban MA/NH than the rural west/north of those states.
While is rural Southern States are almost always market towns surrounded by Farms and what was an agrarian economy.
New England has an Industrial Countryside.
Same reason West Virginia doesn't quite fit in the south because its rural areas are full mining/union towns as opposed to farmland.
This is partially the reason that Rural New England is Democratic and the Rural South is about as Republican as you can get.
Last edited by btownboss4; 12-01-2015 at 12:43 PM..
I think your observation about WV is mostly stereotype. WV has 23,000 farms, the highest rate of family owned farms in the US, Virginia has about 46,000 farms and a much larger population. The top farm states are almost all non-southern. South Carolina has about 25% of its land in farms, Alabama has about 27% in farms, West Virginia about 23% in farms, despite a real scarcity of flat land.
I think your observation about WV is mostly stereotype. WV has 23,000 farms, the highest rate of family owned farms in the US, Virginia has about 46,000 farms and a much larger population. The top farm states are almost all non-southern. South Carolina has about 25% of its land in farms, Alabama has about 27% in farms, West Virginia about 23% in farms, despite a real scarcity of flat land.
I meant historically, obviously most plantations and such that dominated the south till the 1930s are now defunct, any many small mill towns in rural New England no longer have their mills.
However, the existence of this stereotype can probably be attributed to the fact that much of the popular culture that originated in the South came from rural folks or those who celebrated rural culture. In other words country music, literature set in rural areas/plantation agriculture, etc. Combine this with the fact that while the North wass no less rural, the industrial economy and some of the country's first very large cities are up there and there you have it, the association of the South with rural culture.
Add to that a large wave of migration of Southern rural people into northern cities back in the mid-20th century so a lot of urbanites first exposure to Southerners, in erson, were people with rural roots. It is no secret that urbanites in the North are about as ignorant of their own rural backyard as they are of the South.
Nice photos! That truck with the Vermont plate must belong to my neighbor's cousin (I'm in rural NC)
Did I use the "R" word?
Coming from Boston, I often thought rural referred to the small towns where I liked to ski in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Many of those quaint towns have changed a lot since then.
So to me, a rural town is a low populated area with lots of farms that hasn't been over-developed, and is several miles from malls and traffic congestion.
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(I'm in rural NC) 
