My map of Midwest/South in Missouri! (Springfield, Washington: movies, gated)

[GunnerTHB]

Originally Posted by MODixie

Culturally they seem different.

Yeah they are because Ste. Genevieve is more rooted in it's historical French culture than anything. JeffCo is influenced by St. Louis & many of the locals are of German heritage, yet another characteristic of the Midwest. I have never seen anything in Jefferson County other than topography (which in this case has nothing to do with culture) to make me believe otherwise. Yes southern Jefferson County is rural, but rural doesn't mean southern, especially in this case 35 to 40 miles away or so from downtown St. Louis. St. Louis commands a strong cultural influence of probably an 80 mile radius or so, maybe slightly more.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by GunnerTHB

Yeah they are because Ste. Genevieve is more rooted in it's historical French culture than anything. JeffCo is influenced by St. Louis & many of the locals are of German heritage, yet another characteristic of the Midwest. I have never seen anything in Jefferson County other than topography (which in this case has nothing to do with culture) to make me believe otherwise. Yes southern Jefferson County is rural, but rural doesn't mean southern, especially in this case 35 to 40 miles away or so from downtown St. Louis. St. Louis commands a strong cultural influence of probably an 80 mile radius or so, maybe slightly more.

Whole lotta German-ness going on in SG, but you have to know the people to see it.

[GunnerTHB]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

Whole lotta German-ness going on in SG, but you have to know the people to see it.

Right. I was just addressing what makes Ste. Genevieve unique .

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by Smtchll

Yeah, I've taken 61 to get to Ste. Genevieve before, but it was at night so I couldn't see much. Gotta go through there during the daytime. That whole area is just beautiful. It's really flat here in Memphis, so I love getting to the hilly part of MO.

Have you ever driven the Great River Road in IL along the river?
Stunning, and you can see the bluffs in MO, especially in autumn.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by GunnerTHB

Right. I was just addressing what makes Ste. Genevieve unique .

Its not like any place else in MO, thats for sure!

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by MODixie

Jefferson county outside of the northern part has more Bapitst, bible churches. the influence isn't as strong as it is in Stl county and city.

Southwest Jefferson is nothing like Ste Gen and can't compare to stl county.

Ste Gen still has some French, but has heavy German influence mostly. Now another 100 years down the road who knows.

SG will always honor its French heritage, you can take that to the bank......those old, historic French buildings arent going away, you know.

[Smtchll]

Originally Posted by MODixie

Jefferson county outside of the northern part has more Bapitst, bible churches. the influence isn't as strong as it is in Stl county and city.

Southwest Jefferson is nothing like Ste Gen and can't compare to stl county.

Ste Gen still has some French, but has heavy German influence mostly. Now another 100 years down the road who knows.

Yeah, Jefferson County has a higher Baptist to Catholic ratio.

In 2000:
St. Louis Co.- 30% Catholic, 5% Southern Baptist
Jefferson- 16% Catholic, 13% Southern Baptist
Ste Genevieve- 50% Catholic, 18% Southern Baptist
Perry- 46% Catholic, 3% Southern Baptist
Cape- 15% Catholic, 14% Southern Baptist
The Association of Religion Data Archives | Maps and Reports | Select County Report (http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/selectCounty.asp - broken link)

Of course, Southern Baptist doesn't necessarily equate to Southerness, but it could be considered a Southern characteristic. Especially when deciding if a place is Southern or Midwestern.

[GunnerTHB]

Originally Posted by MODixie

Outside of St. Louis, and some of the river areas on the MO river, and MS Hills area most of Missouri is Protestant either Methodist or Baptist. Just look at a map. Protestants overall dominate the former slave states except for Maryland, West Virginia, Lousiana, and now Florida and Texas to an extent.

Why the census bureau lumps MO as the midwest it has so many more characteristics that do not line up with the Midwest such as religion, and large sections of the state which are transition zone upper southish, or are located in Dixie. Unlike Indiana which is only upland south, and IL which is only a few counties in the far southern part. None of those other two Midwest states can compare to the amount of southern that MO has. Nowhere in IN and IL is as southern as the MO bootheel which is only a little more than a hour from the deep south.

Missouri has more characteristics in common with the midwest than the south. The bootheel doesn't represent the entire state.

[Smtchll]

Originally Posted by MODixie

Higher than Stl, and a lot of Stls are black.

You know that's interesting that Ste Gen has more percentage of Baptist than Perry co does despite being more north and German, French ancestory.

Also you should go by overall protestants not just Baptist because some areas also have a high number of Methodist that waters the baptist down for example.

Blacks are generally not Southern Baptists. They belong to other Baptist denominations that weren't counted in the survey. So when you see "Southern Baptist" on the website, it's mostly referring to whites.

And I wouldn't go by all Protestants, because some Protestant groups are more Midwestern, like Lutherans. Perry Co. has a high percentage of Lutherans (22%) The rest of the counties have slightly more Baptists than Lutherans. Except for Ste Genevieve, which has way more Baptists and hardly any Lutherans for some reason. The Germans that settled there must have been overwhelmingly Catholic.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by MODixie

Same as Stl has some old French designs still standing, But sure doesn't seem very French to me culturally.

SG has more French buildings than anywhere else in North America, save Canada.
Theres maybe 1 in StL, and thats iffy.