OT: Which States make up the 'Midwest"

fart

If they currently have a Big 10 school, it's Midwest. Except for PA and the new teams next season.

Lots of people confuse the Midwest and the Central Plains. Different regions. The Midwest is west of the Mississippi.

SS, you're wrong! The midwest includes states on both side of the Mississippi. Some people think states like Ohio and Michigan are not very western. But at one time they were. Go back to 1820 and you'll see that some states east of the Mississippi were some of the most western states at the time.

Wisconsin is not west of the Mississippi. But I think it's very much in the Midwest.

Ask what region most Wisconsinites, Minnesotans, Illini and Indianans believe they're in and most will say the Midwest. I'll throw in Missouri, as it seems fair to consider Kansas City and St. Louis to be Midwestern. With Minnesota and Missouri in the Midwest, I'll begrudgingly include Iowa as well.

Throw in Michigan and Ohio, too.

West of that pack, Great Plains & Mountains. East, you're in the east. South, you're in the South.

The unambiguous core of the Midwest is the states formed from the Northwest Territory: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Minnesota and Iowa are also clearly Midwestern.

After that it gets dicey: Are North and South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas in the Midwest or the Great Plains? It depends on how many regions you want to divide the U.S. into. If there is a Great Plains region, then these states are in it; otherwise they're Midwestern.

The other unclear case is Missouri, which has aspects of the Midwest and the South (and, for that matter, the Great Plains). It was a border state in the Civil War, with its population evenly divided between Union and Confederate sympathizers, and its status is uncertain to this day. Personally I would put Missouri in the Midwest, but many people in the southern part of the state identify more with the South.

While we're at it, I would suggest that Texas is simultaneously a Southern, Western, and Great Plains state and that those three regions come together around Dallas-Fort Worth. If this sort of thing interests you, read The Nine Nations of North America (1981) by Joel Garreau, a somewhat dated but still fascinating study of the regions that the U.S. and Canada, both overly vast, could more naturally be divided into.

Try the Mid East

The distinction lies in the Strip Club laws that prevail. Missouri is now part of a martian colony, while Illinois is spit into upper half (bad for SC), and lower half (better for SC). ESL is an island of prostitution.

BTW, for what it's worth, was in Tampa for the first time in 15 years week before last. Made a point of stopping by Mons Venus, and was rocked by a 21yo spinner writhing stark naked in my lap. OMG!!

Jack, it's 2014, not 1820. If it was, we'd be speaking Spanish in California. Wait a minute...

Being a Nebraska resident, I feel Midwestern and my relatives in South Dakota do, too. But the western half of Nebraska and the Dakotas seems like a world apart to me. I have still never been in the western half of Nebraska (assuming I have it figured out where the so-called center of Nebraska is).

Slick, they speak Spanish out west?

I think my point was unclear. I meant that the term "Midwest" originated in the early 1800's before we had admitted all the western states to the union. "Midwest" does not seem appropriate for Ohio or Michigan today, but it did at one time.

I remember when the Cumberland Gap was the western frontier. Now the Cumberland Gap is what I call my CF's pussy.

Any state bordering Michigan.