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The Gulf Coastal Plain between Lake Charles and Lafayette looks like the Midwest. It was settled by Midwestern farmers from Iowa. The only difference is that instead of growing corn they grow rice (and now crawfish). When the fields are drained for harvesting it looks very much like Nebraska or Kansas. When the fields are flooded it looks like Louisiana . There is even a town called "Iowa" in Louisiana just east of Lake Charles, but it's pronounced "eye oh way". It was settled by people from Iowa but the Cajuns in the area butchered the name back in the day.
Here is what I-10 looks like going through that area. Looks very much like Iowa, huh?
This area of Louisiana does look like the Midwest. The lay of the land looks reminiscent of the small town where I was raised on the Missouri/Kansas border.
It's interesting that the people of Iowa, Louisiana, pronounce the town's name as "Eye-oh-Way." My grandparents were born in Iowa almost 100 years ago. (They're now deceased.) Old timers like them used to pronounce Iowa as "Eye-Way," no "Oh" in the middle. You rarely hear people from Iowa use this pronunciation anymore.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RDM66
This area of Louisiana does look like the Midwest. The lay of the land looks reminiscent of the small town where I was raised on the Missouri/Kansas border.
I've been through that part of Louisiana in person countless times.
I can say though that a few things are instantly distinct from the majority of the Midwest, especially to the naked eye. One being the crops. Two, and this is big one for me, the plant life is entirely different. Once you start recognizing trees and plants, you'll never not see the difference.
Doing a 360 view of the first Louisiana picture, it does look like the Midwest, but as the other poster mentioned, I noticed right away the light colored soil between the crop rows, I might have guessed central Nebraska for that shot. In the most productive farm regions of the Midwest, the soil is black. Nice that they have a town named Iowa, I'm actually hoping the pronunciation they use will catch on. Since the state of Iowa has received a #1 ranking recently, I'm thinking people might start using Eye Oh Way as an expression of doing something right, such as when a boss or supervisor wants something done right, they will say..... "I want that job done the Eye Oh Way, then after the task is completed, and something of quality was produced, they won't say "Good job, excellent, well done" they will just say Eye OH Way, Eye OH Way, twice in a row like that with a loud cheerful voice, to show how pleased they are about the results.
I would agree that now, Oklahoma does not have as much in common with the Midwest as it used to, but what happened to the farmers in the dust bowl years and the tragedy they faced, is something I'm sure every Midwestern farmer can relate to and sympathize with, and the Grapes Of Wrath is a page from the story of the Midwest, IMO.
Oklahoma is a farming state, eastern OK gets enough rain, it is a productive farm state and they can grow a variety of crops, but the land is not very good for corn or soy beans. Being an oil state used to make it an outlier to the Midwest, but now with North Dakota pumping their sweet crude down thru the pipeline thru Eye Oh Way to refineries in Illinois, that changes things a little, but earthquake fracking is not something a Midwesterner would put up with for very long, lol.
On one of my trips to FL, when my mom lived in Citrus county, we drove from there on the gulf side of north central FL, across the peninsula to Kennedy Space Center on the East coast. Much of the land in between looked very Midwestern. I saw lots of farmland with fields with corn and rolled up hay bales, we only saw palm trees within 10 miles of the coasts, much of the interior looked like southern Iowa or Missouri. However, one of the farms we passed, they had three big wooden crosses set up in a rather expansive front yard, and it took me a minute or two to figure out what those crosses were for, lol. That was quite a location reminder for me, lol. We went back that way a few days later, after visiting Kennedy space center, and the crosses were gone.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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I must say though, that street view of Louisiana made me feel nostalgic for the area. I had a very good friend in Elton, which is very near Iowa/Jennings. Sweet old lady named Helen. I hope she's generally well, she sadly has cancer. I've lost touch since moving back to NY.
I always loved the Louisiana prairie more than the bayou region I lived in. It's so calm there, so removed from the troubles of urban Louisiana. A distinct contradiction to my typical attachment to the Appalachians.
When I was driving through CO on a trip from NY to CA, I couldn't believe the difference between eastern CO (flat lands) that seemed completely mid-west flats and western CO (the Rockies) that seemed to be completely different world especially going into the Utah red rocks which seemed like an alien planet.
Couldn't begin to tell you that. But Oklahoma is not in the Midwest.
I can tell you. Midwest City was named for Midwest Air Depot (which is now known as Tinker field). Midwest Air Depot was called that because it was located in the taa daa…………...Midwest part of the country as far as the Army Air Core was concerned. They considered Oklahoma "the Midwest" completely in a logistical and geographical context because by these two parameters Oklahoma and Kansas and Nebraska are the "Midwest" part of the country.
This has caused confusion as many people consider Oklahoma the "Midwest" in these contexts despite the fact that it really isn't in the "Midwest" on any cultural or traditional in any traditional sense.
As to the question at hand it's ironic that the OP's first two references were to Eugene and Salam, Oregon. I consider the whole of the Willamette valley to have somewhat of a midwestern, agrarian feel to it. Love the charm of this part of the world.
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. There is even a town called "Iowa" in Louisiana just east of Lake Charles, but it's pronounced "eye oh way". It was settled by people from Iowa but the Cajuns in the area butchered the name back in the day.
