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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt's Amazing How Many Americans Think They Live in the Midwest When They Don't
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/midwest-u-s-survey-west-geography-97c18794https://archive.is/iBdLJ
It’s Amazing How Many Americans Think They Live in the Midwest When They Don’t
States including Wyoming, Montana and Arkansas have a surprising number of citizens who say they’re Midwesterners. Some locals are baffled: ‘Who ARE you people?’
By Ben Kesling and Jennifer Levitz
Jan. 19, 2024 8:01 am ET
Lynn Shelmerdine passes oil rigs and tumbleweed on her way to work. Most men she knows drive pickup trucks and quite a few wear cowboy hats. But she’s emphatic that her part of Montana, despite being in Mountain time, is the Midwest rather than the Wild West.
It’s “family, family, family and I think that’s what Midwestern people are — family comes first and working hard and providing for your family,” says Shelmerdine, a 60-year-old retired teacher who runs Elks Lodge #1782 in Sidney, Mont., a small oil and agricultural city about 10 miles from the North Dakota border.
“Meat and potatoes… county fairs and we definitely have lots of casseroles — we call them a hot dish,” she says. Don’t forget marshmallows in salads. “You got a church potluck, you’re gonna get that.”
Everyone knows places such as Ohio and Minnesota are solidly in the Midwest. But a recent poll finds that the Midwest is more a state of mind than just a place you can point to on a map.
People from Colorado (42%), Oklahoma (66%) and even Wyoming (54%) think they live in the Midwest, according to data from Emerson College Polling and the Middle West Review, a journal published by the University of Nebraska Press. Nearly a third of Kentuckians and a little over a quarter of Arkansans say the same.
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Aristus
(72,178 posts)Yeah? So do people everywhere else, doucherag! It's the only way to make it in this country if you're not wealthy. And the wealthy don't work hard. They work us hard for their wealth.
dalton99a
(94,109 posts)
Mariana
(15,624 posts)
Mossfern
(4,715 posts)marshmallows in salad?
Niagara
(11,849 posts)Generally called Ambrosia Salad or Watergate Salad, depending on where one lives.
Ambrosia Salad
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/ambrosia-salad/
Watergate Salad
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/watergate-salad/
I hope this helps explain "marshmallows in salad". 
radical noodle
(10,595 posts)It's eaten with the main meal... at least in Indiana.
Niagara
(11,849 posts)You're correct that it's not considered an actual dessert.
Growing up, my mother made Watergate Salad for frequent family gatherings. Since my mother's Watergate recipe contained dry pistachio pudding and cool whip mixed with cottage cheese, I always considered it a dessert.
I was trying to explain the dish to the previous poster so that it made sense. I'm not sure if I was successful.
radical noodle
(10,595 posts)You're right that many other people would consider it "dessert" but it was called a salad and eaten as a salad so I always considered it a salad. I didn't care much for Watergate salad but there are other sweet salads that I liked... my favorite is pretzel salad.
I'm also a native-born Hoosier. Born in Indianapolis, but spent many years down around the Bloomington area. Moved out after I retired because I hated the winters.
Niagara
(11,849 posts)
I'm originally 30 to 40 minutes north of Fort Wayne. I haven't improved my winters any since I now live in Buffalo.
radical noodle
(10,595 posts)I don't envy your Buffalo winters, but I imagine the summers must be great.
xmas74
(30,055 posts)It's a classic church potluck salad. They always put it with the other sides and you always grab a little spoonful. It's almost a transition from your first plate at the potluck to deciding on a dessert plate. If there were too many tasty casseroles and sides you don't feel bad about skipping dessert because you've had a bit of sweet. Otoh, if you're not full it only whets your appetite for a big slice of layer cake, bars, pie or dump cake.
(If the dump cake is still warm and someone brought ice cream-yummy!)
radical noodle
(10,595 posts)I always think of church events when I think of sweet salads. You nailed it.
xmas74
(30,055 posts)That sounds so good!
Niagara
(11,849 posts) xmas74
(30,055 posts)I've caught something going around.
And this Midwest girl will be making it once spring comes around. Jello or a fluff salad is perfect for a few days and is easy to throw along with the entree and veggies. It's like a light,sweet treat.
Niagara
(11,849 posts)
Maeve
(43,456 posts)Originally apples, walnuts and grapes, it can contain mini marshmallows or raisins instead of grapes (and mixed with slaw dressing)
Niagara
(11,849 posts)Some weekend yummies!
Diamond_Dog
(40,569 posts)
Oneironaut
(6,299 posts)“In dis town, we have AMERICAN values! Unlike dem silly Libtards who expect handouts, we earn our money! Also, we love GAWD, JESUS, and FAMILY!”
It’s embarrassing.
Beartracks
(14,591 posts)... because the people here work hard, love their families, and help out their neighbors when times are tough." All true, of course, but it always seems to imply that they chose to live in Oklahoma because people in other states don't exhibit the same qualities. Weird.
===================
Chainfire
(17,757 posts)
Ms. Toad
(38,633 posts)I grew up in Nebraska - EAST of the center of the country as measured on Highway 30, and most of the midWEST is quite a bit EAST of that. Ohio, where I am now, is 2/3 of hte way to the east coast from where I grew up.
dpibel
(3,941 posts)Did you mean 281?
Ms. Toad
(38,633 posts)Where I lived in Nebraska was 69 miles EAST of the center of the route from NY to San Francisco. Because it runs across the entire country (and has close to forever), it is a convenient way to locate the E/W center of the country.
Most of the "Midwest" is east of the point that is the E/W center of hte country.
Maru Kitteh
(31,759 posts)So 69 miles east of the 1733 barn would put you roughly around Aurora-ish if you lived near one of the 11-mile towns on Hwy 30. Little towns spaced to accommodate steam engines on the adjacent railroad tracks.
We were always utterly mystified why Pennsylvanians were routinely referred to as "Midwestern." So strange.
Ms. Toad
(38,633 posts)And Aurora is pretty close to where I grew up.
Yup. All those railroad sidings spaced apart just the right distance to make it from one to another.
dpibel
(3,941 posts)Central City, Odessa, and Kearney. But long, long ago.
Maru Kitteh
(31,759 posts)That was a huge mistake. I was shocked to the point of finding it difficult to breathe. Never again.
I know! When I was living in Chicago everyone's thought PA was East, as did I. But other midwesterners thought we were Midwest too. Of course everyone also thought philly and pittsburgh were either the same or like nearby twin cities.
Walleye
(44,797 posts)brush
(61,033 posts)The map includes states I thought were western (the Dakotas, Wyo, Mont, Colo, Idaho) and then there's Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma...not Mid-western...maybe great plains states?
Arkansas is southern, definitely not Mid-western.
niyad
(132,427 posts)of the people interviewed in Colorado think they are in the midwest, not that they are.
brush
(61,033 posts)
MiHale
(13,032 posts)surrounded by huge lakes I personally never considered that Midwest. Great Lakes Region.
Exactly what I was going to say.
dmr
(28,705 posts)I'm very proud of and love our Great Lakes. Yes, I do call us the Great Lakes region.
I've always considered our Winter Water Wonderland of being in the Midwest.
We are very fortunate up here. Cold and snowy, but very fortunate.
JT45242
(4,042 posts)Moved to Iowa, they think they're Midwest. This is an f-in plains state.
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and we will allow Minnesota since half of it was in the northwest territory.
If you were bought in the Louisiana purchase, Gadsden purchase, etc. you are not Midwest you are plains or south or west.
brush
(61,033 posts)
The Revolution
(895 posts)Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin
former9thward
(33,424 posts)They put that choice right in the article. Shows extreme bias.
TwilightZone
(28,836 posts)Does anyone even call it the Wild West anymore? Leaving aside the fact that the West was often not all that Wild, and "West" was often places like Kansas, I don't think it's been used commonly and/or unironically for a very long time.
Efilroft Sul
(4,413 posts)That's where I start to notice Main Street parking on the diagonal instead of on the parallel in some towns. On a somewhat related tangent, the new Mason-Dixon line should be located just north of Washington, PA, on Racetrack Road, where the Waffle House stands. If you know, you know.
Retrograde
(11,419 posts)than it does with eastern New York. I think we need a different designation, one which includes Rust Belt cities in western New York and Pennsylvania and omits the mostly rural places such as North and South Dakota.
brush
(61,033 posts)
marybourg
(13,640 posts)
I grew up in Ohio and while most people accepted that it was clearly in the "Midwest", some insisted we were all east coasters.
I was like, what coast? The easternmost part of Ohio is still hundreds of miles from the actual coast.
The only coast is Lake Erie, to the north.
Retrograde
(11,419 posts)marybourg
(13,640 posts)Ms. Toad
(38,633 posts)So your friend is a lot closer to geographic reality than calling it the midwest is.
marybourg
(13,640 posts)At one point it was “the frontier”. No, I don’t think Ohio is generally considered part of the east coast.
Ms. Toad
(38,633 posts)It is 7/12 of the way from Ohio to the middle of the western half of the US. So if you have to choose one, which is more accurate? MidWest (7/12 of the country away) or east coast (2/12 of the country away)?
Mostly joking by now, but when I moved 2/3 of the way to the East Coast from my slightly ast of the center of the country residence in Nebraska to attend a top college, with people in the top 10% of their graduating classes, and encountered way too many of them from the east coast who really believed Ohio was closer to the west coast than to the east coast, it wasn't much of a joke.
2naSalit
(102,778 posts)The Midwest as follows;
(and not necessarily the entire stat for some),
Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Great Plains
Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas. Beyond that you have sage steppe, not plains, then mountains.
To the east of the Midwest are the Eastern Seaboard aka, for older folks, the colonial states.
Ran all over this country for decades and that's how I always had it parceled out. Some freight regions are set up that way.
brush
(61,033 posts)Not sure that one fits in that category but I was kind of using the river and the states on either side.
yellowdogintexas
(23,694 posts)they would be the folks in Louisville, which is closer to being Midwestern than it is Southern geographically.
Most of Kentucky is pretty Southern
JT45242
(4,042 posts)Rules ky and some of the other wannabe states out.
brush
(61,033 posts)SaintLouisBlues
(1,257 posts)brush
(61,033 posts)Confederate Kentucky was admitted into the Confederate States of America on December 10, 1861. The provisional government in Bowling Green lasted a mere three months as Confederate forces, along with Governor Johnson, retreated to Tennessee in February 1862.
Confederate State Capital - ExploreKYHistory
ExploreKYHistory (.gov)
https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov › items › show
SaintLouisBlues
(1,257 posts)So you're still wrong.
brush
(61,033 posts)SaintLouisBlues
(1,257 posts)A group of rebels based in Kentucky was not the same as the Commonwealth joining with the Confederacy. Wishful thinking from the rebels was what this was.
SaintLouisBlues
(1,257 posts)xmas74
(30,055 posts)It's part of the MW, though different from having grown up in WI.
It has a combination of both MW and South in interesting ways.
Maeve
(43,456 posts)My brother lives in Deadwood, SD, a town that values its "wild west" heritage.
BTW, Deadwood is called a "city" sometimes--it has a population of 1,201--in Ohio, that's barely a village!
hatrack
(64,878 posts)NEW YORK—A U.S. Geological Survey expeditionary force announced Tuesday that it has discovered a previously unknown and unexplored land mass between the New York and California coasts known as the "Midwest." The Geological Survey team discovered the vast region while searching for the fabled Midwest Passage, the mythical overland route passing through the uncharted area between Ithaca, NY, and Bakersfield, CA.
"I long suspected something was there," said Franklin Eldred, a Manhattan native and leader of the 200-man exploratory force. "I'd flown between New York and L.A. on business many times, and the unusually long duration of my flights seemed to indicate that some sort of large area was being traversed, an area of unknown composition."
The Geological Survey explorers left the East Coast three weeks ago, embarking on a perilous journey to the unknown. Not long after crossing the Adirondack Mountains, Eldred and his team were blazing trails through strange new regions, wild lands full of corn and wheat.
"Thus far we have discovered places known as Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin," said Randall Zachary, chief navigator for the expedition. "When translated from the local dialect into English, these words seem to mean 'summer camp.'"
EDIT
https://www.theonion.com/midwest-discovered-between-east-and-west-coasts-1819567923
highplainsdem
(62,134 posts)who lived on Beacon Hill (and wanted me to move there) once sent me.
That had reminded me a bit of the map here
https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:3f463864z
but I don't think that's the exact one Russell sent.
hatrack
(64,878 posts)Last edited Sat Jan 20, 2024, 06:18 PM - Edit history (1)
One: a reporter (who moved on to greener pastures): "I was aware that Herald readers moved their lips when they read the paper. I had not known, however, that its editors did the same".
Two: Imaginary Boston Herald headline about World War III:
Hub Man Witnesses
Nuclear Holocaust
Is Slightly Burned
200,000,000 Killed
Celerity
(54,404 posts)
highplainsdem
(62,134 posts)honest.abe
(9,238 posts)
BluesRunTheGame
(1,964 posts)It’s eastern edge is Appalachia. Western edge is the Badlands. Southern edge is the upland south. If it’s not flat it’s not the Midwest.
highplainsdem
(62,134 posts)considers Midwestern. (I've also lived in New York - Manhattan - and Florida, on the Emerald Coast.)
I was born on what is technically the High Plains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Plains_(United_States)
which is part of the western edge of the Great Plains. The Great Plains stretch from Canada to Texas and New Mexico.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plains
I usually just think in terms of the entire region, including Oklahoma, as the middle of the country. Central US.
I think the term Midwest is just the most convenient to distinguish that vast region from the east and west and Gulf coasts, mountain west, desert southwest, and south.
It's also Tornado Alley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_Alley
As for what attitude that survey was finding, I'd guess it was more a feeling of what part of the country is the heartland:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartland_(United_States)
The US Census Bureau defines the Midwest as consisting of 12 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Portions of other non-coastal states can be included in the region as well. These may include eastern portions of the Mountain States (Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming) and northern portions of some Southern states, such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Diamond_Dog
(40,569 posts)And never once have eaten a salad with marshmallows in it.
highplainsdem
(62,134 posts)types of canned fruit and/or nuts, usually pecans. Usually called ambrosia or fruit salad. One of my aunts liked to make this.
radical noodle
(10,595 posts)and other church events.
NJCher
(43,157 posts)Everyone else had the good sense to get out young and go to California. They settled around LA. A generation later I ran screaming out of there to NYC. But the point of my post is this:
When I went back to the Midwest to plan my mother's funeral, my brother and I were sitting in the church's office for the Ladies Aid (my mom used to belong to that) and we were planning the post-funeral repast. The Ladies Aid representative suggested we serve "tater tot casserole."
It was hard but I kept from a fit of full blown laughter.
--------------
I will say one thing for the Midwest, though: on every NYC job interview I had, they indicated a Midwestern background was a big positive. I was offered the job in every situation for which I applied. Then after I was hired and they would take me around the office for introductions, they would say, "She's from the Midwest!"
Crazy, right? Maybe they were saying, "Here's our resident hick. You can trick her easy!" and I was just too stupid to know.
Oneironaut
(6,299 posts)No, you are not more “tough” and “rugged” because you live in a certain state. “Hard work and American values!!1!” platitudes spouted with a sense of superiority are a pet peeve of mine.
Also, these same people who think other states are “Full of weak Libral pansies!” will go and vote for a man who was born an inch from home plate because “he’s self made like us! A true American patriot!”
Idiots.
ornotna
(11,479 posts)If west central Florida counts.
question everything
(52,130 posts)
Bucky
(55,334 posts)People have such strong opinions about this. It's weird. It's like arguing over whether the words ain't or irregardless are real words. Once they were incorrect usage, but now they're in the dictionary. Language and psychological geography both evolve.
Where the Midwest is depends entirely on where people in their hearts believe the Midwest exists. Or did you learn nothing from watching The Wizard of Oz?
GreenWave
(12,640 posts)Buckeyeblue
(6,351 posts)So the midwest starts in Pittsburgh, includes Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota. I think of both Dakotas as Western. St. Louis is a very Midwestern city but I think of most of Missouri as the west (except for the Ozarks--definitely southern).
I also don't think of Texas as southern, even though they were a confederate state. I get more of a Western vibe in Texas.
LeftInTX
(34,274 posts)DenaliDemocrat
(1,777 posts)Calls themselves a Mod-westerner. Probably polling the transplants. Colorado’s most iconic dish is green chile - not meat and potatoes and BBQ is not really a thing there. Sure you will find it in Denver and Springs. You won’t find it in most other places. You will always find green chile if you look.
intheflow
(30,178 posts)so is Kentucky, which borders Ohio to the the south and west. I mean, the author is treating the term Midwest as being defined, in part, by the Mason-Dixon line.
Model35mech
(2,047 posts)A person might create an American region called THE Ohio Valley, and that would include states that border and have rivers that flow into the Ohio. These states share historic settlement and economic heritage.
But such districts cut across state boundaries and when whole states get put into "regions". Alas, Kentucky also has strong historic settlement and economic affiliation with the lower Mississippi and to some extent the Nachez Trace although many people consider that to end in northern Tennessee. The Ohio was not only a major colonization route, it remained a major shipping route linking to the Mississippi and warm weather port of New Orleans. The Nachez Trace was the land route the developed to return rivermen to the Tennessee and Ohio valleys. So the Ohio valley, Mississippi, and Nachez Trace do have strong historic southern connections
Part of the issue for Ohio seeming midwestern might be northern Ohio seems to be one of the Foundry states because of a rather dominating industrial history that depended upon minerals shipped to its shores and coal transported to its lakeshore foundries. Meanwhile boat and barge building as well as hemp growing and rope making characterized industry along the southern bank of the Ohio river.
Ohio's development as viewed through its 100 year run from the19th century past to the 1970's decline is likely part of its regional assignment. It's one of a collection of states that form what is referred to as The Old American Foundry that included lakeshore iron and steel works and general manufacturing from western New York to the Quad cities in Iowa and Illinois, and that has links to iron, copper, and limestone mines that run across northern Michigan, northern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota where the iron range ends north and west of the Lake Superior shore.
It's undeniably true that Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky produced coal that was also critical to the Foundry States. Why those connections don't carry stronger cultural and economic affilations to The Old Foundry, I don't really know. Maybe it's because those regions of the Cumberland plateau were viewed as "Transylvanian" with more historic and cultural links to the western slopes of the Appalachian Mts.?
kcr
(15,522 posts)We might as well just say there's no midwest at all, because regions don't exist.
fishwax
(29,346 posts)The census definition of regions might depend entirely on borders, but the census definition isn't the only one. Regions are cultural things, and cultural understandings are more fluid than borders.
That said, I'm really surprised that 54% of Wyomingites consider themselves Midwestern. I grew up there, and it's hard to imagine the pride in the West would tolerate the slide into Midwesternism. And, of course, it isn't at all consistent with the politics, as the Midwest is far more moderate than Wyoming.
Model35mech
(2,047 posts)If your state has more Cowboy hats than Seed-caps it's likely you see yourself as Western.
Yes that's a cultural thing, and it includes a lot more than just the hats.
Bo Zarts
(26,360 posts)Last week during the hoopla building up to the Iowa caucuses, a TV reporter (MSNBC?) with a large US map stopped people on the street of a large eastern city and asked them to identify Iowa on the map (the states' boundaries were outlined, but no names showed). None could do it .. even as he reduced the map down to Iowa and the adjacent states.
After working fire lookouts in IDAHO (Pacific Northwest) for a couple of years, my brother (a MD) says to me that he didn't know that there were any fire towers that far east (thinking OHIO). It happens to me fairly often.
I can maybe see confusing Iowa and Ohio. But like I tell people, Idaho has a distinct panhandle .. like Oklahoma, Florida, and Texas. Also, Idaho is so weird politically. And Idaho has big wildland fires and a shitload of guns.
LeftInTX
(34,274 posts)Both states are considered to be in the midwest.
Idaho is not. Their team is called the Vandals.
enid602
(9,684 posts)I think the definition of Midwesterners are people who primarily identify with their state college mascot.
xmas74
(30,055 posts)From generations from the Midwest.
Born in Wisconsin, grew up between WI, MI and MO. Still in MO but would like to eventually return to SEWI.
KS is the Plains.
SaintLouisBlues
(1,257 posts)Take it up with the Census Bureau if you disagree.
xmas74
(30,055 posts)It's a different feel compared to other parts of the Midwest. I'm in Kansas regularly and the further away from JoCo and Wyandotte the less it feels like the MW. Same with the further south here in Missouri. The closer I get to Springfield the less it feels like the MW.
SaintLouisBlues
(1,257 posts)elocs
(24,486 posts)Where I live in WI there was an online debate as to whether an area is a marsh or a swamp. "Marsh" is used as a positive title while "swamp" is negative and generally a put-down. As it turns out, the area is neither since it really is an intentionally flooded farmland area from a century ago. But different animals live there and being in the center of town, when it floods in the spring, much of the water goes there rather into people's basements.
So you don't need to be in the midwest to be of the midwest and to have a midwestern state of mind.
GusBob
(8,246 posts)Many Montanans do
Homesteading immigrants , many were indeed from the Midwest, or Europe
misanthrope
(9,495 posts)1) Regionalism is just another form of tribalism, a default setting for homo sapiens that manifests on multitudinous scales. I've heard the same comments quoted in the OP come from Southerners when comparing themselves to other regions. Before I first ventured from the Southeast, my longterm exposure to these senseless prejudices affected my expectations. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Americans north and west of the Southeast were generally as nice to me as I was to them.
The funniest experience I had in this regard was listening to a group of Southerners talk about how awful NYC is. They mentioned rudeness, even physical superficialities by saying, "Everyone is ugly."
"There ain't no blondes," one woman declared as a detriment. I immediately glimpsed at her dark roots growing out beneath her artificially lightened hair.
"So you're telling me that in the center of the fashion, entertainment, and media industry in America that there aren't any attractive people?" I asked in hopes of them reassessing their statements. Instead they all reiterated their previous stances.
The funniest bit? They were always quick to decry the slightest perceived slight from extra-regional media, bellyaching about unfair prejudices against the South.
2) America does have historically distinct regional cultures, framed by the folks who settled those areas. But those differences don't often lie in the arenas many assume. Historian Wilbur Zelinsky deemed it the Theory of First Effective Settlement. Colin Woodard took a deep contemporary dive into its intricacies in contemporary America, how it has and has not changed, in his 2011 book, "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America." I can't recommend it enough if you want to understand our national history and how we arrived at this current scenario.
LeftInTX
(34,274 posts)The Midwest Region is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as these 12 states:[1]
Illinois: Old Northwest, Mississippi River (Missouri River joins near the state border), Ohio River, and Great Lakes state
Indiana: Old Northwest, Ohio River, and Great Lakes state
Iowa: Louisiana Purchase, Mississippi River, and Missouri River state
Kansas: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains, and Missouri River state
Michigan: Old Northwest and Great Lakes state
Minnesota: Old Northwest, Louisiana Purchase, Mississippi River, part of Red River Colony before 1818, Great Lakes state
Missouri: Louisiana Purchase, Mississippi River (Ohio River joins near the state border), Missouri River, and border state
Nebraska: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains, and Missouri River state
North Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, part of Red River Colony before 1818, Great Plains, and Missouri River state
Ohio: Old Northwest (Historic Connecticut Western Reserve), Ohio River, and Great Lakes state. The southeastern part of the state is part of northern Appalachia
South Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains, and Missouri River state
Wisconsin: Old Northwest, Mississippi River, and Great Lakes state
https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/reference/us_regdiv.pdf
CrispyQ
(40,969 posts)CO is a Rocky Mountain state along with ID, MT, WY, & UT. AZ & NM fall into the southwestern state category. That's how we referred to them in my area, anyway.
Srkdqltr
(9,758 posts)Gl would include ohio Wisconsin Minnesota Indiana and, to be really cute Ontario.