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I think we can all agree that the South runs straight to the Atlantic coastline: Savannah, Georgia, Wilmington, North Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, etc., and we already have a thread entitled "Northernmost Southern City". But the South also has southern and western boundaries. Los Angeles is at the same latitude as Tupelo, Mississippi, but I doubt anyone would consider it "Southern". Likewise, few would consider Miami or even Brownsville, Texas (93% Hispanic) to be culturally Southern.
So, where are the lines, and what cities are close to them on the "Southern side"?
If speaking "culturally southern" I would hazard to guess the Orlando area as the southern edge. Not so much Orlando specifically any longer but many of the surrounding community's residents are very clearly "southern" in manner and lifestyle.
Western Most "Southern" Metropolitan area: Odessa, TX or Lubbock, TX
Western Most "Southern" areas/small cities: Southeast New Mexico
Southern Most "Southern" Metropolitan area: Corpus Christi, TX . In Florida, it's probably Gainesville, FL. Ocala is too much of a hybrid these days, as is Daytona Beach. You can find the southern influence thoughout the center areas of the peninsula, often in the majority where there are small towns. Acadia, Florida has a lot of southern people. That said, the large cities/metros are only minimally southern below Ocala. That said, Tampa and the Lakeland-Winter Haven area do have relatively high numbers of "Southerners" for central Florida, but still a minority of the population. The Fort Myers/Cape Coral area of southwest Florida also has a respectable percentage, but again a minority.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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I think the DFW metroplex is a good benchmark, Fort Worth being the gateway to the West but still Southern. Likewise San Antonio plays a fairly similar role but with more Mexican influence.
Westernmost - Fort Worth. There is no way anything in NM or far west TX is Southern in many categories.
Southernmost - I second Corpus Christi.
As far as western-most, you really need to travel to Texas. The accents, regional cuisine, religions, and general mindset are similar to what you'll find in the southeast. Abilene is southern and it is west of Fort Worth. Midland and Odessa are southern, as is Lubbock. You can even find southern accents in southeastern New Mexico.
I have... But I don't see it. Even if everything is the same, the lack of forest cover breaks it and I can't see it being part of "The South" just because of that landscape characteristic.
Westernmost - easily Bakersfield. Some would even argue Santa Maria or Coalinga.
Agreed! Bakersfield is about as southern as Tennessee and Arkansas plus most of the people who migrated to Bakersfield were originally from Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Westernmost - Fort Worth. There is no way anything in NM or far west TX is Southern in many categories.
Southernmost - I second Corpus Christi.
As to the bolded part, what are you defining as "far west Texas", and what are the catagories which you feel are essential to being "Southern"?
With all due respect, I believe you are simply making "Southern" and "Southeastern" into synonymous terms, and they are not. The South has never been a monolithic region, but a part of the country with a shared history, culture, linguistic, religious, etc, patterns, that easily offset it from the Far West, Midwest, or Northeast.
There are "many" catagories where eastern Tennessee does not fit in with southern Mississippi, nor south Louisiana with about any place else. This notion that the South is the mirror of GWTW is a Hollywood creation, as is that --- singularly speaking -- Texas is full of desert and cactus and looks exactly like Arizona (where most of those old western movies were filmed because it saved on set-costs).
As it is, I would agree that trans-pecos Texas is truly Southwestern...but even El Paso has a Confederate monument and went for secession in 1861. At most, most of western Texas is simply the South moved into a more western-type environment. The settlers however, were overwhelmingly Southerners moving to get a new start and they brought with them all the above mentioned characteristics and attitudes.
When it comes right down to it, Texas has very little in common with the true SW states of New Mexico and Arizona (or any bordering them). They didn't even become states until long after Texas had been shaped and settled by Southern forces. No way did they influence Texas.
Last edited by TexasReb; 12-11-2013 at 03:33 PM..
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