For the longest time I assumed the Midwest was a purely descriptive term based on location and not one that was defined… Finding out Ohio was in the Midwest blew my mind.
I’m from the Midwest and so many people when I tell them or discuss being Midwestern have no idea that it’s Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, etc. They treat me like I’m stupid. Well they’re not wrong, but I didn’t make that shit up.
Think of the time when the name came about (late 1700s or early 1800s), anything beyond the coastal states was “the west” and what they called the Midwest was (kind of) in the middle of it.
For the longest time I assumed the Midwest was a purely descriptive term based on location and not one that was defined… Finding out Ohio was in the Midwest blew my mind.
I’m from the Midwest and so many people when I tell them or discuss being Midwestern have no idea that it’s Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, etc. They treat me like I’m stupid. Well they’re not wrong, but I didn’t make that shit up.
Makes perfect sense to me. The entirety of the USA is in The West™ so the middle of it is The Midwest™.
Ah yes I too remember 1942 when Columbus landed in San Francisco. /S
Think of the time when the name came about (late 1700s or early 1800s), anything beyond the coastal states was “the west” and what they called the Midwest was (kind of) in the middle of it.
Yup. West of the East Coast cities, but not past the mountains. Which for the most part acted as a barrier.
No, it was definitely past the mountains, just not past the other mountains.
“We’ve had mountains yes, but what about second mountains?”
It’s because the term came from a time when everything west of the Mississippi River was “the West”
Ohio ain’t even mid it’s skibidi