Hardest states to classify (stations, radio, best)

[g500]

mod delete I already know the answer

[probablyimnotsure]

what's the answer?

[g500]

I was trying to classify all the states into four categories - Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. AK and HI are "Other". But was wondering what WV and OK would be?

[Craziaskowboi]

Personally, I just split West Virginia in half. The southern half belongs to the South, and the northern half belongs to the Northeast. Oklahoma is the one that still vexes me. It's too far south to be part of the Midwest, and too far east to be part of the West, but it didn't become a state until 1907, so it was never officially part of the Confederacy, and there's not a lot of Southern culture there either.

NOTE: Church attendance, political views, gun laws and country music radio stations aren't necessarily characteristics of Southern culture, or there'd be rural areas in every state outside of New England that are somehow part of the South. Even the presence of the Confederate battle flag is an increasingly poor barometer, since you can find people flying that flag in all 50 states.

[eddie gein]

Originally Posted by Craziaskowboi

Personally, Oklahoma is the one that still vexes me. It's too far south to be part of the Midwest, and too far east to be part of the West, but it didn't become a state until 1907, so it was never officially part of the Confederacy, and there's not a lot of Southern culture there either.

Oklahoma is probably more southern than it is anything else, but it is decidedly LESS southern than any other state in the south.

[C24L]

Texas is hard to classify because parts of the state have more in common with the South or even the Desert Southwest.It even has some plains influences.

[Kar54]

Missouri. Sometimes it's midwest, other times it's south (from being a slave state during the civil war). And often times referred to as America's "heartland".

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by Craziaskowboi

NOTE: Church attendance, political views, gun laws and country music radio stations aren't necessarily characteristics of Southern culture, or there'd be rural areas in every state outside of New England that are somehow part of the South. Even the presence of the Confederate battle flag is an increasingly poor barometer, since you can find people flying that flag in all 50 states.

It's not just about presence, but about prevalence. Sure you can find a Confederate flag flying publicly here or there in Montana or Maine, but those states don't have dozens of chapters of SCV, they don't recognize Lee's birthday, don't have state flags that include Confederate emblems, etc. And it's not just about church attendance, but typically churches of the Southern Baptist/fundamentalist/evangelical variety that comprise the majority in the South.

Southern culture and rural culture are NOT the same thing.

[Pincho-toot]

West Virginia. I don't consider it Southern. Its southern most point is at the latitude is further north than the southern most point of Illinois and Kansas, and its northern most point is further north than ALL of Missouri. Its way too far north. Culturally its best described as "Appalachian" and geographically, as western northeast, like western Pennsylvania or western Maryland.

Nevada's also interesting because Las Vegas can be described as a Southwestern city, but Nevada goes very far north as well. I grew up seeing Nevada in the same category as Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. Not Southwest but rather "Rocky Mountain West."

[Western Urbanite]

Virginia, between the Northeast and South.