In '64 and '65, my summers were spent working for the Forest Service in northern Idaho. That first summer I met Dave, who lived in Clarkston, WA. When Dave introduced me to others, he added the comment, 'He's from back east.' That surprised me, never thought of MN as being 'back east.' But, yeah, if you live in WA, most of the country is back east.
I'm intrigued by many commonly-used geographic references and terms, the Midwest, for instance. I grew up in MN, which is part of the Midwest. I never thought of it as 'west', be it mid or otherwise. Geographically, the state is half way between the east and west coasts and it abuts Canada. Seems to me that Minnesota, plus the Dakotas and Wisconsin should be called Mid-north.
The term Midwest came into use in the 1880's, when the bulk of the population was in the eastern states. 'The east' ended at the western borders of New York and Pennsylvania; everything beyond those borders, starting with Ohio, was 'the west'. The US census bureau has stayed with historical definition and defines the Midwest as the 12 states between Ohio and the Dakotas, inclusive, extending southward to Kansas and Missouri, inclusive. This block of states is often referred to as The Heartland.
To round out the picture, the other Census Bureau regions are:
Northeast: from Maine down to, and including, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
South: from West Virginia and Maryland down to, and including, Texas and Oklahoma.
West: Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and all states west of these.
The Bureau divides the above 4 areas into subsets for statistical purposes. We won't go into that today - or any other day for that matter. Something tells me that most folks find this subject slightly less exciting than watching paint dry. My work here is done.
I entirely agree with your assessment re: Mid-North. It seems so obvious, now that you've said it. It seems relatively recent that the bulk of the population was in the East--surprisingly so. We're just newbies out here in Oregon.
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