Thank you, glacier.
An ode to the Midwest, America’s true heartland. (#Day5)
Thank you, glacier.
You, the glacier that sat a mile-thick above Michigan for over 5,000 years during the last ice-age (which began over 10,000 years ago) have created a region at the center of America that is generally kind, loving, and hard-working. You, glacier, have created America’s true heart(land).
For the last 6 years, between my time at the University of Michigan and my time living in Chicago, I have spent the majority of my life in the Midwest. The Midwest, which sits at the geographical middle of America, has historically played a significant role in our economic and socio-cultural story. This is a trend that, likely, will only continue to intensify over the next 300 years.
In the years 1900, 1920, and 1940 the 15 most populous cities in America were as follows:
A closer examination of this list reveals some fascinating truths. For one, the central importance of the Midwest is exemplified through populations of 3 cities we often overlook: Detroit, Cleveland (formerly known as the “Paris of the Midwest”), and Milwaukee. Detroit’s rankings were 13th, 4th, and 4th, respectively. Cleveland’s rankings were 7th, 5th, and 6th. Milwaukee’s rankings were 14th, 13th and 13th. St. Louis, while a bit south of the Midwest, has a lot of cultural similarities to the region and ranked 4th, 6th, and 8th, respectively. Two other cities on the outskirts of the Midwest, Pittsburgh and Buffalo, made the list in all three of these check-points.
During this time, industry raged throughout the urban centers of Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and St. Louis. Detroit, ranking 4th among all American cities in population for a roughly ~30 years, was at the center of this (geographically and idea-istically) through the production of the Model T by the Ford Motor Company. To demonstrate the economic significance of the Ford Motor Company, I have provided the following chart of Ford Model T sales from 1908–1916:
This exponential growth trend continued, obviously. Through providing cars that were cheap enough for their own factory workers to purchase, the Ford Motor Company was establishing a new transportation paradigm that would change the world for the next 100+ years. Because these automobiles required parts, suppliers and business-more-largely from around the Great Lakes region benefited massively from the proliferation of the automobile industry, with its center being based in greater southeast Michigan.
It’s also interesting to note that the Great Lakes provide more shoreline than both the east coast and west coast combined. As Fritz Klug writes:
There are 4,530 miles of U.S. coastline for the five Great Lakes. That’s longer than the 2,165 miles of coast for the 14 states on the Atlantic Ocean, and the 1,293 miles of coast for California, Oregon and Washington on the West Coast.
Additionally, people in the Midwest are, generally speaking, really nice. They are often friendly and genuine, while they commonly live a slower-paced life.
Perhaps the story here goes deeper. Given the central position of the Midwest in America, one could view the Midwest are being the literal heart of the country.
With the Mississippi River cutting directly through America and leading up to the Midwest, there are geographical-economic benefits of having both the river and large, freshwater lakes located so centrally and in the central-northern part of the continental United States. There was a ‘Manifest Destiny’ within the American psyche to expand west, and the Mississippi River represented a physical and mental leap beyond the known. Lewis and Clark went through the city which now has the Arch, and there weren’t any Major League Baseball teams west of Chicago until 1958. On top of this, until 1847, much of the southwest was actually Mexico:
Another fascinating example of the central importance of the Midwest is the case of Michael Burry from The Big Short (one of the best-produced movies I have seen in years), who now trades water-backed securities. This was mentioned at the very end of the movie via text. [Sidenote: how does one trade water-backed securities? Please comment here if you can provide any information on this.] To me, this importance will only intensify as water becomes increasingly scarce.
With climate change, inertia points to the fact that the Midwest will likely, eventually, be a tropical, beachy climate in the long run future. Eventually, what are now underdeveloped or undeveloped pristine coastal-parks will turn into warm beaches and the 4,530 miles of coastline may be altered into swanky living residences as people will want to live there.
Through the 1930’s, many Ivy League Universities had quotas around the number of Jews that could be admitted. Many of the major Midwest institutions, primarily the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and (I believe) Indiana University did not have these quotas. These Midwest institutions were more welcoming to Jews and likely also to out-of-staters and immigrants more largely (this has even continued until today, as Purdue and Illinois have among the most international students enrolled, ranking 2nd and 3rd among colleges in America in 2014).
For people visiting the Midwest for school or work throughout the 20th Century, I feel that these individuals were able to benefit themselves through the warmth, generally welcoming manner, and less image-driven lives than they may have been used to previously.
Finally, there may be an underlying reason for all of this, (along with the glacier).
Today, I sat-in on Bruce Conforth’s first class of the semester for his AMCULT 337 class (available as a MOOC online I’m told, link to follow). Bruce (I was told NOT to call him “Mr. Conforth”) was of the opinion that (paraphrased, slightly):
“Blues music undoubtedly influenced every form of popular music in 20th century America. Rock and Roll, ‘early white country music’, hip-hop, even rap, were a product of the emotion that is deeply inherent in Blues music… No other genre of music has the word “the” at the beginning, other then “the Blues”.. this is no pure coincidence, either… I feel that I have a sacred responsibility to pass these stories of inherent emotion on.” — Bruce Conforth.
Hastings Street in Detroit. Maxwell Street in Chicago. Every major blues artist in America, according to Bruce, and many of the ideas and emotions around this form of music, have their American originations in the Midwest; the Great Lakes region. Bruce was the original curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in (you guessed it) Cleveland.
Anyway, glacier, you were really the one here before everyone. You carved out a region in the middle of the country with thousands of lakes, a region which is now largely flat and is home to the emotion-driven music and general expressiveness that is the heart of America.
Thanks, glacier. You rock. You created something sweet. You created something that isn’t going away, not anytime soon, at least.
#Day5, #100DaysOfBlogging
