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Although the area is generally known as Michigan's conservative hotspot,
There are pockets of very liberal areas on the West side. (Saugatuck for example) Further many areas infested with Chicago have become much more liberal. Generally not entire towns or cities but parts of different areas. If Politics drive your life decisions, you can find pockets of either side in the area generally to whatever extreme you are looking for.
I tried to only include areas in the mountain west that average 40+ inches of snow a year.
MT
Bozeman, MT
Billings, MT
Great Falls, MT
Browning, MT
WA
Spokane, WA area
Wenatchee, WA
WY
Sheridan, WY
Evanston, WY
Cody WY
ID
Pocatello, ID
Idaho Falls, ID
Stanley, ID
Grangeville, ID
UT
Cedar City, UT
NV
Elko, NV
Ely, NV
NM
Alamogordo/ Cloudcroft, NM - (Alamogordo gets almost no snow, but 20 miles away in Cloudcroft they average 66 inches of snow a year.)
Taos/Angel Fire, NM - (Taos gets about 30 inches of snow a year, down the street in Angel Fire, they get 122 inches a year.)
Dulce, NM
CO
Durango, CO
Pagosa Springs, CO
Fort Collins, CO
Craig, CO
I tried to only include areas in the mountain west that average 40+ inches of snow a year.
CO
Durango, CO
Pagosa Springs, CO
Fort Collins, CO Craig, CO
Only if you want to live in a town with an economy that's mostly dependent upon coal mining and a coal-fired power plant that is slated to shut down by 2030.
Craig is losing population and more will leave. But it may see increasing share of Steamboat Springs workforce housing over time. How that balances out in long-run, I dunno. Craig might get in a downspiral hard to stop or it might get a new style and make that work.
[quote=gabetx;62770916]I tried to only include areas in the mountain west that average 40+ inches of snow a year.
MT
Bozeman, MT
Billings, MT
Great Falls, MT
Browning, MT
WA
Spokane, WA area
Wenatchee, WA
WY
Sheridan, WY
Evanston, WY
Cody WY
ID
Pocatello, ID
Idaho Falls, ID
Stanley, ID
Grangeville, ID
UT
Cedar City, UT
NV
Elko, NV
Ely, NV
NM
Alamogordo/ Cloudcroft, NM - (Alamogordo gets almost no snow, but 20 miles away in Cloudcroft they average 66 inches of snow a year.)
Taos/Angel Fire, NM - (Taos gets about 30 inches of snow a year, down the street in Angel Fire, they get 122 inches a year.)
Dulce, NM
CO
Durango, CO
Pagosa Springs, CO
Fort Collins, CO
Craig, CO
SD
Rapid City, SD
Hill City, SD[/QUO
A good list. I lived in both Pocatello and Idaho Falls, didn’t care for either. But Poky had better eateries. Poky also seemed more relaxed due to be a college town.
Duluth, MN. MN taxes are kinda high but not as bad as NY and CA, and unlike some states, we actually put our high taxes to good use.
I was going to mention Duluth as well. Duluth is incredibly lush and forested, and summers are probably among the most pleasant in the US, with frigid Lake Superior keeping temps milder than would otherwise be. Winters average almost 100" of snow, which is roughly twice as much as the Twin Cities.
Duluth, unfortunately, isn't going to be what the OP is looking for from a political or religious standpoint. However, it is a very blue collar, unostentatious, no-frills type of place that may be appealing to them. It has a nice, walkable downtown that's mainly concentrated on Superior Street (Duluth's "Main" Street), which caters heavily to the college crowd. Duluth has San Francisco-style hills, but Upper Midwestern sensibilities.
Kalispell, Montana has every thing under your list of qualifications and desirable qualities. The only thing it lacks is it's not a college town. But it attracts a lot of people due to the fact that it's right next to glacier national Park. It also has quite a lot of outdoor activities so you should be quite content with it.
You're not going to find many cold-weather places that are low tax.
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