Midwest

Posted by Scott Marsden on February 01, 2001

In Reply to: Midwest posted by Don on January 30, 2001

: Where and how did the phrase orginate. I live in Seattle, but grew up in the Chicago/Michgan area. It has always been referred to as the midwest. People here look at me as I'm crazy when I say that.

Well, not always. Way way back, Illinois used to be part of the "Northwest", and then when the western borders of the US moved west, it became part of "the Old Northwest". Now it's the "midwest", because it's not "east" (east coast states) and it's not the "west" (west of the Mississippi.)