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So Midwest is only Michigan and Wisconsin now? Ooooooookay
I think you have Midwest confused with...who knows what. Lol@ Ohio not being Midwestern enough. Even more lol @ Indiana not making the cut.
What even is your criteria???
At first I thought as you do, that Geographybee is saying only Michigan and Wisconsin are in the Midwest, but if you reread what he wrote, "fully fit their region", he/she is saying that only Michigan and Wisconsin are totally the Midwest. The argument is that since the other states have Southern, Yankee, Western, Great Plains etc., influences, they are not totally Midwestern, except pure Michigan and Wisconsin.
Now I do NOT agree with that argument at all, beginning with the fact that the Great Plains ARE part of the Midwest.
Pittsburgh is not in West Virginia; it is in Pennsylvania.
I have always considered West Virginia to be Southern; not sure what other region it could fit into. I understand it's not Magnolia Trees, Spanish Moss and deep south Southern, but it certainly is not Midwestern or Northeastern. FWIW, my grandparents on both sides of my family are from West Virginia and they considered themselves to be both Appalachian and Southern.
I have always considered West Virginia to be Southern; not sure what other region it could fit into. I understand it's not Magnolia Trees, Spanish Moss and deep south Southern, but it certainly is not Midwestern or Northeastern. FWIW, my grandparents on both sides of my family are from West Virginia and they considered themselves to be both Appalachian and Southern.
Coming from a county in PA that has a mutual border with W VA, I agree.
At first I thought as you do, that Geographybee is saying only Michigan and Wisconsin are in the Midwest, but if you reread what he wrote, "fully fit their region", he/she is saying that only Michigan and Wisconsin are totally the Midwest. The argument is that since the other states have Southern, Yankee, Western, Great Plains etc., influences, they are not totally Midwestern, except pure Michigan and Wisconsin.
Now I do NOT agree with that argument at all, beginning with the fact that the Great Plains ARE part of the Midwest.
I have always considered West Virginia to be Southern; not sure what other region it could fit into. I understand it's not Magnolia Trees, Spanish Moss and deep south Southern, but it certainly is not Midwestern or Northeastern. FWIW, my grandparents on both sides of my family are from West Virginia and they considered themselves to be both Appalachian and Southern.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katarina Witt
Coming from a county in PA that has a mutual border with W VA, I agree.
I agree with both of you.
I honestly don't think many people here in the New York area, which is more or less the center of the Northeast, think of West Virginia as part of the Northeast or for that matter the Midwest. Certainly no one with a knowledge of history or geography.
West Virginia is part of the South. No maybe she is not like Georgia, South Carolina or Mississippi but Southern none the less.
Part of the Upper South or Upland South if you will. Possibly the area with the best climate in the USA.
Michigan has influence from New York historically so I guess let's take it out of the Midwest too.
The Great Lakes states DO have Yankee influence.
I believe that Michigan to this day has a similar system of local government to the Northeast. In fact, so does Wisconsin, which even calls its local governments "Towns" like New York.
So that takes out both Michigan and Wisconsin as the "pure Midwest states". Oh gosh, so that means there are NO pure Midwest states by Geographybees standards! LOL
Nah, just kidding. I get the point Bee was trying to make, I just don't agree with it.
WV does not fully fit into the south at all. Not unless you want to include Pittsburgh as a southern city.
Extreme parts of southern Ohio are influenced with southern traits, but it is NOT truly southern. Get out of here with that, tired of that one. It's called "mid-land" and "central Appalachia", both areas where the traditional north and south mingle. There are just as many northern influences on the south side of the river. Again, by your logic parts of PA and NJ would be southern too.
Iowa is ABSOLUTELY Midwestern. In fact, I dare call it a state that exemplifies the region short of the rust belt proper, which is a great lakes thing that extends into the northeast as well.
While I am on the subject, the great lakes region is not exclusively Midwestern, unless you consider central NY Midwest too. People should stop using the lakes area to wholly define the Midwest, as it is not the core character of said region. If anything, Michigan and Ohio are more like NY and PA than they are Iowa and Minnesota.
No, NJ has no areas that are Southern. PA most certainly does. OH has regions that are southern as well. Overall, I am basing my criteria on the typical cultural/geographic definition of each region. Therefore, the Midwest is a huge region, but it is not divided by state lines. The same goes for every other region in the country. In addition, I agree that parts of MI and OH are more like NY and parts of OH are like PA. No parts of Michigan are really like PA. However, parts of PA and NY are incredibly different from the Midwest, and they influence the state far more. I would agree that Western New York is Midwestern, and that is why I did not include NY as fully northeastern. PA has areas that are northeastern, areas that are fairly southern, and areas that are Midwestern. There is also a reason I did not include PA as fully northeastern.
This is hilarious. Others have beat me to some of the critique I was gonna level, so I'll just leave it at: there's nothing "Midwestern" about Western New York. It's very similar to the eastern Great Lakes stretch of the Midwest, but that would literally be the only subregion of the Midwest you could compare WNY to. Matter of fact, WNY stands in stark contrast to much of the Midwest...
No, you clearly do not understand that most of the Midwest is centered around the Great Lakes. That is one of the defining features of many Midwestern cities.
At first I thought as you do, that Geographybee is saying only Michigan and Wisconsin are in the Midwest, but if you reread what he wrote, "fully fit their region", he/she is saying that only Michigan and Wisconsin are totally the Midwest. The argument is that since the other states have Southern, Yankee, Western, Great Plains etc., influences, they are not totally Midwestern, except pure Michigan and Wisconsin.
Now I do NOT agree with that argument at all, beginning with the fact that the Great Plains ARE part of the Midwest.
I mean fully. Every state in that general region has areas that feel fully Midwestern. But they are not entirely Midwestern states. MI and WI feel entirely Midwestern to me, as does most of Illinois and Indiana. However, much of OH does not feel very Midwestern.
I also completely disagree that the Great Plains are part of the Mideest. They most certainly are a separate region. The Midwest is anchored around the cities of Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. ND and SD are certainly not Midwestern. I have never heard them referred to as such. IA could be called Midwestern, but KS and NE are in the same boat as ND and SD. I strongly disagreee that those four states are part of the Midwest. I have always thought of the Midwest as being anchored around the Great Lakes, not the true middle of the country.
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