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Not region as in "Mountain West", this post is referring to a smaller area--- the radius within which people will travel for major shopping, specific medical appointments, the airport, concerts, etc. Something bigger than an MSA/CSA, maybe like a "media market".
I'm a bit surprised that people in Western MT look toward Idaho Falls for that stuff, though, vs. Billings or Spokane.
Travel between western Montana and Boise and Spokane is very common. It’s the same region with quite of bit of business links.
Cities in western Montana are only a couple of hour drive from aforementioned cities. Which is nothing by western standards. Medical care in western Montana ain’t that great. If you need a really good specialist chances are you will end up in Spokane or even Seattle.
The Dakotas and parts of Eastern Wyoming is a different story
Travel between western Montana and Boise and Spokane is very common. It’s the same region. The Dakotas is a different story.
I would wager travel between Boise, Spokane, Portland and Seattle is much greater than anywhere in western Montana.
Boise is a NW city and is connected to these cities much more than Montana.
I would wager travel between Boise, Spokane, Portland and Seattle is much greater than anywhere in western Montana.
Boise is a NW city and is connected to these cities much more than Montana.
If you live in NW Montana (Whitefish, Kalispell etc) and even Bozeman there is a very good chance you have been to Spokane many times in your life.
I thought that's the reason people like the region. It's the fact that the US still has wide open spaces where you can run for the hills from time to time when the rest of the world has gone crazy
The reason why there isn't a major city in that region is largely because of the semi-arid climate. Cities need a reliable source of drinking water. In semi-arid climates, more water evaporates than precipitates. Also, food can't be grown locally because it won't grow without irrigation (most of this area is ranchland, not farmland). So it all has to be trucked in.
That's why the major cities on the corners of the region (Calgary, Winnipeg, Omaha, and Denver) are where they are. Either go east and pick up the moisture from the eastern half of the country, or go north to Canada where it's colder and thus less evaporation, or go west to the edge of the Rockies where due to the high elevation it's colder and thus less evaporation. Now the exception to this is rivers, where cities can use the river as a water source. It's a little surprising that there no major cities on the Missouri north of Omaha.
I think the best bet for building a major city in the region from scratch would be somewhere like Chamberlain and Oacoma, South Dakota. It has a relatively mild and humid climate for the region, on a major trade route (it's right on I-90), a lot of flat land, and most importantly it's on the Missouri.
Last I check, Boise is actually not that small. MSA is now 750k-800k people, which is actually close to places like Little Rock AR.
That's like 2-3x the size of Bozeman...and even before the pandemic bubble growth, Boise MSA has something like 600k people, twice the size of Bozeman (and similar size to MSA like Jackson, MS)
Get out much? Twice in your post you admitted you really aren't very knowledgeable.
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