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Yet every time I grab an Oregon stout, it's overstuffed with local product (hops) that ruins the finish. There has never been an exception. They do the same thing with porters and belgians. This is common throughout OR, WA, CO, and much of CA. No thanks. There are many exceptions obviously, but in my mind, Michigan is brew-central and has been for over a decade. West coast always disappoints. Unless you love IPAs, I guess.
Vermont in some ways feels like the Pacific NW of New England. Lake Champlain looks and feels like an inland sea the same way Puget Sound does with ferries, islands, and forested shores. The whole granola vibe, locally produced, and small family farms seem to have their impact on on all three states to some degree in localized areas. Burlington is has a predictable craft beer scene that you'd expect to see in a college town, and they seem to be big on hard cider there.
I think Wisconsin and Vermont have more similar vegetation and climate than Oregon, which has a lot more micro climates and more diversity in its landscapes. The mind's eye image of Oregon tends to mostly conjure up evergreen forests, but there are also a lot of fertile valleys and pastoral landscapes, along with desert landscapes that look other planetary.
I do think of dairy production for all three. Wisconsin's notoriety with cheese goes without saying, supermarkets throughout the West carry Tillmook butter, yogurt, and cheese from Oregon and Vermont has the association with Cabot cheese and Ben & Jerry's.
Just came across this thread.
This is perhaps the post that I would say is spot on.
Wisconsin and Vermont are MUCH more similar to each other as far as physical geography.
Very similar forest types/vegetation/climate. Oregon being a western state has way more diversity in climate and landscape and nothing like the mixed evergreen-deciduous forest that forms a belt stretching from New England through the Great Lakes and adjacent areas of Canada (dominated by sugar maples, white pines, hemlocks, birches, etc.) Vermont certainly has much more topography than Wisconsin, but as another poster pointed out: Wisconsins highest point is just under 2,000 feet asl, while Vermonts highest point is just over 4,000, but those two are much closer to each other than Oregon's 11,000 feet.
If you take Wisconsins most hilly regions (The Driftless area, as well as ranges near Lake Superior) that basically is like what most of Vermont is like, with Vermonts highest peaks being like Wisconsins highest peaks . . . on steriods.
Oregon is just other wordly with its volcanic Columbia Plateau high deserts, its actively volcanic Cascades, and temperate rainforest.
Culturally however? I can totally see one making the case for Vermont being more similar to Oregon than Wisconsin.
Apart from the major college towns, Wisconsin has little of the hippie-granola culture that Vermont and Oregon has. Maybe being on the coasts, with much larger urban/metropolitan population to draw from for those who want to get back to nature Vermont and Oregon has more of this? Don't know. Wisconsin is the state I have VAST experience with, while the other two have only been to once, and I can tell you that the hippie-granola culture in Wisconsin doesn't extend much past the college towns.
Wisconsin and Vermont have a long history of left wing ("far left"?) political dabbling.
Oregon in recent decades has also leaned liberally, but is that by virtue of being near California? Before then, it was the polar opposite. It was the only state in the US to ever flat-out ban black people from living there, IIRC.
As annoying as this answer may be: I think the best "sister state" pairings are all going to be immediately bordering each other.
Wisconsin has more people, and it's still ranked only 33rd in the US as far as Black population. Not sure what relevance that has. Are you trying to make it the only thing?
Wisconsin and Vermont have a long history of left wing ("far left"?) political dabbling.
Oregon in recent decades has also leaned liberally, but is that by virtue of being near California? Before then, it was the polar opposite. It was the only state in the US to ever flat-out ban black people from living there, IIRC.
As annoying as this answer may be: I think the best "sister state" pairings are all going to be immediately bordering each other.
Politics is something Oregon and Vermont very much have in common now. According to Reuters-Ipsos Oregon had the lowest % of college educated whites who voted for Trump...Vermont was second lowest. Wisconsin was closer to middle of the pack.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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Quote:
Originally Posted by willow wind
Neither VT nor Wisconsin are poor by anyone's standards.
VT ranks # 19 on per household income of all US states, WI # 21 & OR # 29. On per capita income, VT is # 18, WI 20 & OR 26.
Be careful what you read and interpret. What people are reading about VT being poor is a study that compared income and corporate tax rates. VT has high tax rates for both. That study seemed to think its
tax rates might make it a " poor" performer for future economic growth.
Although it must be noted that a lot of Vermont's wealth came in with transplants from downstate NY.
A fair shake of native Vermonters are middle class or lower.
I will be honest, I don't think of Oregon, Wisconsin and Vermont as sister states at all. You can make an argument that they have some similarities like they all northern states or that they are widely forested (especially Vermont and Wisconsin) but I still do not think that justifies calling them sister states.
Different size areas, populations, and regions of the country. Not to mention terrain, I see people mentioning Wisconsin hills, but Wisconsin comes in at #25 on the hilly scale (slightly below average) versus the extremely hilly #44 for Oregon and #49 for Vermont. So that is pretty off.
Sister states are usually states nearby that share major similarities to each other. For example, New Hampshire for Vermont, Minnesota and Michigan for Wisconsin and Washington and possibly Idaho for Oregon.
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