The Vernacular Middle West

Contrary to the writings of academicians and journalists, college students from most sections of the country perceive the Middle West to have its core in Nebraska and Kansas. In a 1980 survey, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio seldom were seen as part of the region except by their own residents. Business and organization names using the term Middle West also are at their greatest relative frequency in the plains states, matching the collegiate perceptions. Regional images provide an explanation for the cognitive map patterns. Americans view the Middle West overwhelmingly in rural, small town terms. Even residents of the industrialized states of the Old Northwest hold this view. Pastoralism apparently has been so much a part of the regional and national identity that people find the idea difficult to abandon. Rather than changing the regional image to fit urban-industrial reality, the public has shifted the regional core westward to the Great Plains where rural society is more dominant.