[ikiris]

how the hell is Ohio midwest?

[jplona]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States - The Background section has the explanation.

I've always understood it as a sort of historical anchoring bias. Compared to the areas that were settled during colonial times, Ohio was indeed "West" in people's minds, just less so than the Pacific coast.

[ikiris]

Wild. Learned something.

[fuzzfactor]

For a while there, the Mississippi river was the western extent of the USA.

In places like Ohio, you were midway there.

[AnimalMuppet]

If you look at a map, it's clearly not. Not "mid", which would be from Chicago to Denver, and even more not "west", which would be west of Denver.

But "midwest" is a term for a region, and terms last longer than the reason for the term. When the term was coined, the US essentially ended at Chicago, and Ohio was midwest.

Hmm. I must be in a mellow mood today. I've made the exact same complaint you did when others said Pittsburgh was "midwest".

[SapporoChris]

Standard cultural conventions of the locals I suppose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States

[selectodude]

West of the applachians, east of the rockies. Midwest.

[goatlover]

I always thought west of the Mississippi was Midwest.

[trillic]

(Rockies, Mississippi River) == Great Plains States?