Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The northern half of the frontier strip happens to be part of the Midwest. That would be, for your edification, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.
Arguably the least Midwestern of the Midwest states are those around the great lakes, which should be considered part of the northeast from a geographical perspective. De-puff the chest, Sally.
The Midwest is big. The great lakes are not nebraska.
The great lakes are not isolated. There's towns every 30 miles all throughout the great lakes region.
Ohio is hilly. Wisconsin/Minnesota(illinois/iowa corners) have the driftless region with bluffs creating nice scenic areas.
Northern Michigan has lakeside cliffs and decent elevated outlooks in the porcupines. Southern Illinois and Indiana have the Shawnee adn Hoosier forests with rolling hills and forests. St louis/Missouri has the Mark twain forests.
When it comes to the great plains Midwest... They only speak on the flat parts. Which it does have a lot of. Yet the I-5 corridor of California where it's brown flatness never gets mentioned, the desert flatness of the southwest never gets mentioned, Florida and it's ridiculous boring flatness never gets mentioned.
But for some reason. The midwest flatness is the only thing anyone ever brings out as their trump card against the midwest.
Last edited by Chicago_Person; 02-18-2020 at 08:48 AM..
The northern half of the frontier strip happens to be part of the Midwest. That would be, for your edification, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.
Arguably the least Midwestern of the Midwest states are those around the great lakes, which should be considered part of the northeast from a geographical perspective. De-puff the chest, Sally.
I think when people debate "true" Midwestern, it's based on what part of the Midwest they are from.
I'm from northern Iowa, west of the Driftless Area. It is quite literally the eastern edge of the Great Plains (according to the EPA). It is flat, mostly treeless, windy as hell, and covered in corn and soybean fields with very low population. Windmills and grain elevators are your sky line. The Frontier Strip resembles my home much more than the Great Lakes do, and so to me those places are more in line with what I think of "true" Midwest.
Someone from Ohio or Michigan is going to see it completely different. Because the census Midwest is a massive area that has a lot of difference and diversity from one end to the other, and longitude is every bit as important as latitude in the final equation.
See. That's the issue. Everyone outside the midwest has opinions on what is Midwest.
They don't wanna give us the badlands but they want to give us the rest of the state which is flat.
The midwest is arbitrary. And it should be split between the great lakes and the plains.
I was born and spent the first 10 years of my life in Western Wisconsin. Wall, SD, is NOTHING like the Upper Midwest. Once you get past Chamberlain going west on I-90 the scenery changes.
"Hate" is too strong of a word, but I definitely think it's underappreciated.
I'm from Tennessee and lived in Iowa for a year and Indianapolis for three years. Neither one of those places offered much in the way of beauty or outdoor recreation in and of themselves.
Still, the rolling hills of southern IN and IL could easily pass for middle TN. The Garden of the Gods in southern IL is very unique. Southern OH has some nice hiking and hilly areas. The sandy shores of western MI along the lake are unlike anything here in the South. There's nothing like the cliffs along Lake Superior or Door County, WI.
To me, the problem is that a lot of the population centers are in the uninteresting flat areas. Columbus, Indianapolis, and Des Moines all come to mind.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
