CompuServe Thread

#DevCon in Denver

5 messages in this thread
#5253From: Don Curtis/SYSOPDec 13, 1990 1:44 AM
Bill, But 60% or 70% of the people live East of Chicago…so it's in the middle of the west population wise. Don
#5257From: BILL LEACHDec 13, 1990 7:41 AM
Don; Had not thought of it that way (population). Of course that was not true at the time that Chicago got the term midwest. I suspect that the term "midwest" was applied to Chicago because people did not have even a vague idea of how far it REALLY was to the center of this country! 73, bill
#5398From: Ethan SolomitaDec 15, 1990 11:56 PM
Actually, if you want the real reason why Illinois/Wisconsin/Ohio/Michigan/Indiana are considered MidWest, I believe the reason is that the term was invented before America had a significant population in the west, and so it really was at the time. It was a stopover from east to west. — Ethan
#5421From: BILL LEACHDec 16, 1990 12:18 PM
Ethan; I agree but I do add the idea that back when that area was termed "the midwest" most people had no idea that the "west" was so far away. 73, bill
#5443From: JAMES D. WILLIAMSDec 16, 1990 7:26 PM
I believe that the population center of the US is somewhere in Iowa (Centerville?). Or maybe that's the geographic center. I tried real hard to forget such pieces of unimportant history. –Eet–