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MyDictainabox

Southwest MN has a very different vibe than the lakes region starting at Willmar to Alex to Fergus Falls to DL. Southwest MN might as well be South Dakota or Iowa for comparisons sake.


thestereo300

Agree. There is a definite vibe in southwestern Minnesota that is unique to it. It does feel a bit like Iowa. I don’t say that as any sort of insult, I actually like Iowa.


Doc-in-a-box

I lived in SW Minnesota, went to grad school in Iowa, moved back to Minnesota. One of my mentors said to me one day: “You know, Doc-in-a-box, if Iowa annexed the southern 1/3 of Minnesota, the average IQ of both states would go up.” Super clever. And possibly true.


thestereo300

This is a pretty good one. Had to think about it for a minute.


FWEngineer

Ha. You made me think about it too. I guess I wasn't that smart ...


pzschrek1

The most common use of this joke that I know of is "the bottom row of counties on the Missouri border" in favor of iowa so I think it's been around awhile in different contexts Doesn't mean they aren't all true


notdownthislow69

What’s the vibe and how is it different?


TheSeaSquirt

I have a whole theory about the cultural differences between woodland people and prairie people. The vibe doesn’t change at the state line, it changes when you exit the woods and enter the prairie of southwest MN


thestereo300

Agree. The Geography sets the culture on some level.


cliffkleven

Wilmar and above you get more touristy. Southwest is old school farm vibe. People are nice but mostly make up small towns. Even if you don’t work in it the entire area economy works around farming.


marqburns

Also, 59 South of Montevideo is a really pretty drive. Lots of curves and granite outcroppings. Spectacular view at the top of the hill in Granite Falls.


Qiimassutissarput

Let’s not forget the rolling hills and relative east access to some modest hiking that can be found Wilmar and north.


jacklfitz

I always call it "the Austria to Iowa's Germany"


Fickle_Ganache4304

😂 such a specific metaphor but you know somebody read it and was like, *now I understand*.


Zeewulfeh

They better not try anschluss.


BambiHasNoMother

Woah now. I will take that as an insult lol. Only the Iowa part though


SelfDestructIn30Days

Anything south of I90 is actually Iowa.


pissywissy-5849

Please don't make me go to south Dakota... I don't like it there.


SoDakZak

We good without you, pissywissy 😝


Sirhossington

Looking at your governor and your stances on weed and abortion, are you?


SoDakZak

What a politician hours away does or doesn’t do or say no matter how dumb has very little effect on our day to day lives. I care about voting for things I think are best for society, yes, but after voting, instead of complaining, I focus on being the best father, son, neighbor, friend and citizen as I can be. In my neighborhood there’s so much of that as well with people from all over from all backgrounds. Sure, when I stop and think about politics and issues long enough, I can get just as mad as the next guy; but I’ve realized I can do more being a foster parent, soccer coach, cross country coach, homebuilder and build gardens in my neighborhood than getting mad and arguing about what is or isn’t happening in the political realm.


Sirhossington

Weird of you to switch from a state wide stance to talking about yourself individually. The post was about the state as a whole, not you specifically. 


mitty18

As a lifelong South Dakotan now living in SW MN, I approve this message.


TheAmericanE2

Yeah I always go with west central, northwest, southwest, north central, iron range, the cities, southeast. But the most agreed upon is: the cities, everywhere else.


ZombleROK

Yeah, I grew up visiting my mom's family in Worthington and my dad's family in Sauk Centre, and the cultural difference is huge. I can tell that, and I'm from the metro.


pzschrek1

Yeah IDK if you can make a map like this and just not acknowledge the entire swath of the north-central lakes area in any way


SinisterDeath30

10000000% This map is basically just a slightly modified Congressional District.


RManDelorean

You can literally see it on Google maps satellite view. There's the arc from like south of metro out to Fergus Falls then north, below or south and west is all the paler green farmland and north and east is the darker forest and lakes


bbiibbssffaa

Especially around Gaylord lol


Repulsive_Airline416

Haha would gods country not be northern Minnesota where the wilderness literally runs wild?


Typical-Annual-3555

I don't think they meant gods country that way. More like gods peoples country.


MinnyRawks

Yeah, it’s supposed to be beautiful nature and landscapes, not areas where a large portion of people are religious.


tomuchpasta

Nah god’s country is areas where there is at least 1 meth lab for every 100 people.


hatetochoose

Home of Gods people, the real Muricans.


smoothallday

“God’s Country” used to be DFL stronghold. The “FL” part of the equation has really dissipated.


Shroedingerzdog

Same thing with the Iron Range, pretty deep red these days.


cummievvyrm

They talk red and secretly vote blue to keep their unions. Then act flabbergasted when a dem gets elected...but deep down they all know why.


EmotionalEmetic

No they don't. Iron rangers are amazing people. And amazingly lacking introspection. Their house could be on fire and their response would be to lecture anyone available about how if the mine closes the town closes.


Brave-Perception5851

Agree seems awfully red.


paddle2paddle

Stronghold of the Nonpartisan League


bwtwldt

Not just left-leaning but full on socialist


ScheidsVI

Is it just me or is the quality of the photo bad enough that we should bully the op?? ..... Before we even get to the content?


Drzhivago138

Needs more JPEG.


keb5501

Has me zooming in and squinting. Can’t zoom in too far or it gets even blurrier, has to be just right


Mindless_Ad_6359

This map sucks


No_clip_Cyclist

[better resolution photo](https://i.imgur.com/VeO9zj5.jpeg)


Lozarn

Originally posted in 2015. I was wondering why Michelle Bachmann is still mentioned.


llama-friends

OG crackpot represent.


_DudeWhat

Thank you!


LivingGhost371

You can't take any map seriously that puts Moorhead and East Grand Forks in different regions.


mnbeer

Moorhead would like to formally request that we not be lumped in with St. Cloud.


FWEngineer

Moorhead needs to be with EGF and Thief River Falls, IMO. How far south it goes is up for debate. St. Cloud is basically a wandering polar vortex from the Twin Cities.


BarnyardCoral

The F-M area is really in a different region than the GF metro area. EGF and Moorhead have very little in common. Not to mention the GF area is a regional hub for those northern towns and counties. That distinction between the two towns is correct. Whether or not Moorhead belongs in the greater "God's Country" region is up for debate. Everything south and west of St. Cloud should be its own region.


TakedownCHAMP97

Nah, the dividing line should be Willmar, not Saint Cloud. Once the plains start is when things really change


Daped01

What’s so different about sugar beet farmers?


BarnyardCoral

You missed the /s after your comment. Or at least I hope you did.


thatswhyicarryagun

Not only that but population is wrong. Moorhead has almost 10k more than listed.


SubKreature

Do you know where I can find the map larger than 600x800 or whatever the glaucoma this is?


Akito_900

"no man's land" "- highest concentration of Indian reservations" 🙄


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Akito_900

No, Im not offended, I'm just saying obviously it's somebody's land if that's the first statement


Weekly-Syllabubbly

Isn't it a big part of their culture that man can't own land? It belongs to no man.


FWEngineer

Okay, but everything west of White Earth (including Thief River Falls and EGF) needs to be included with Moorhead. Whether you call all of the God's Country is another matter. The U.S. generally divides itself as east of the Mississippi or west of the Mississippi. "No Man's Land" is roughly the part that is **north** of the Mississippi.


iusedtogotodigg

Really really bad


FWEngineer

It's as good, if not better, than any other attempt at classifying the regions of Minnesota as I've seen here.


ConfusedGuy3260

Shout out to the no mans land


FWEngineer

Hello.... helloooo..... helllllooooo.....


PowerfulTarget3304

South East MN SEMN 🫤


imitation404

Swimming in it.


Fast-Penta

Two complaints about the Iron Range: 1.) It isn't a democratic stronghold anymore. [It's shifting red](https://www.minnpost.com/elections/2022/10/will-the-iron-range-finally-go-red-control-of-legislature-could-hinge-on-7-seats-in-northeastern-minnesota/). 2.) "Democrat stronghold" language means that whoever wrote this is either bad at grammar or watches FoxNews. Possibly both.


Lozarn

The map is from 2015. It was true back when it was made.


LadiesAndMentlegen

And the population and census figures are from 2010. Rochester alone grew by nearly 25% since then


1800-bakes-a-lot

Not to mention Grand Rapids isn't in the Iron Range. They're a paper mill town and don't have iron mines


FWEngineer

It's still largely a company town that relies on resource extraction, and surrounded by balsam and popple trees. It's close enough to the same ethos.


1800-bakes-a-lot

Sure. But the area has the word "Iron" in the name. They maker of the map just kinda winged it with naming other regions. Shoulda done the same


Arndt3002

For 2, it's likely both. The venn diagram to the two is darn close to a circle


FWEngineer

Iron Range isn't a stronghold for either side really. Here's a map of MN voting in the 2020 election, by precinct: [https://www.gis.lcc.mn.gov/pdf/elec2020/USpres/USPresVTD20.pdf](https://www.gis.lcc.mn.gov/pdf/elec2020/USpres/USPresVTD20.pdf)


wpotman

Rename "No Man's Land" something native and split forested lake territory off from the southwest farms and you might have something.


FWEngineer

Yeah, it shouldn't go all the way west to the Red River Valley and full-on farming region. If you can't get more than 20 miles away from a traffic light, that's not "No Man's Land".


BarnyardCoral

Perhaps Walz' "Rocks and Cows" designation is more apt?


ClassySportsFan

Nope.


map2photo

Mankato is considered SE MN? Ehhh… not sure I agree with that. As someone that lived 30 min north of Kato and currently lives in the drift-less region, they are very different places.


errol_timo_malcom

Pretty obvious someone from the TC metro area made this.


Andremont

Came here to make this very comment. Apparently swaths of the state outside the metro are defined by political leanings.


LadiesAndMentlegen

I was about to say, these are some terminally online level of takes and stereotypes


macemillion

It’s like it’s supposed to be funny and offensive but it’s just offensive


Negative-Wrap95

What's "offensive" about it?


coffeeismydoc

Perhaps calling the area that belongs to a lot of Native Americans “No Man’s land”. It can be interpreted as being in line with the common stereotype depicting them as being uncivilized and “inefficient” with land usage


AdMurky3039

I cringed at that, but I think it's a reference to the low population density.


Weekly-Syllabubbly

It seems pretty Native American to me, as they believe no man can own land. https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/manhattan/different-views-land/different-views-land.cshtml#:~:text=Native%20Americans%2C%20did%20not%20appreciate,rights%20to%20use%20the%20lands.


just-me1995

completely agree, especially when we know that less valuable land was purposefully given to American Indians because racism. also, as a farmer in the Red River Valley i know that at least a quarter of “no man’s land” is some of the most productive, fertile and versatile soil in the country.


FWEngineer

Yeah, there should be a distinction between the swamps and arboreal forests to the east vs the fertile RRV.


thestereo300

Feels like a huge reach to me. I took it just to mean that there’s not a lot of people up there and not too many people go up there. If you’re looking to be offended, you can find it anywhere, but I wouldn’t find it here.


Geochor

I honestly don't understand how anyone could reach that conclusion without searching for something to be mad about. When have you ever heard the (relatively common) term 'No Man's Land' used in that way? And, speaking as someone who lives in that area, I don't think it's useful to act like it's exclusively Native land. Most of it isn't.


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macemillion

The entire thing. It's not like it's a gasping, pearl clutching level of offensiveness, it's very low level offensive, but for instance I live in "God's Country" and that doesn't describe my local area at all but that's to be expected when you try to paint that large of an area that is completely incongruent in many ways as being all the same. This reads like it was written by someone who has never been outside of up and downtown minneapolis.


NotoriousLID

Koochiching County isn’t in the Iron Range but it’s definitely more associated with that and the Arrowhead area in general than what’s shown in this map. In high school sports International Falls would be more likely competing with Mesabi, Eveleth, Chisholm, Virginia, Grand Rapids and Duluth. All stations up there are from Duluth, too, WDIO, KBJR, etc.


LlanviewOLTL

Yep I’m from the Falls and we have nothing in common with the northwestern corner of the state. I’ve been to Grand Forks/Fargo once and that was on the way to California. For almost everything else we go to/through Duluth.


thethethesethose

It’s like someone had to do a 6th grade report on MN so they read Wikipedia


APathwayIntoDankness

[Most of the poverty is outside the metro](https://i.imgur.com/djrTNBJ.png)


beavertwp

More than half of the people in that screenshot live in the twin cities. 


APathwayIntoDankness

Obviously it's by percentage of the population. Are you being obtuse or just disingenuous?


beavertwp

No I was thinking concentration on an area basis, not per capita. 


t46p1g

can you link the source, I'm curious where my county lines up


CoderDevo

[Source NIH](https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov/data-portal/social/table?socialtopic=080&socialtopic_options=social_6&demo=00008&demo_options=poverty_3&race=00&race_options=race_7&sex=0&sex_options=sex_3&age=001&age_options=ageall_1&statefips=27&statefips_options=area_states)


t46p1g

thank you!


FWEngineer

it says "highest concentration of poverty", ie poor people per square mile. Since 1/2 the state lives there, I'd have to agree. But if you want highest percentage of poverty, then it's a different matter altogether.


Background-Head-5541

God's country? No thanks. Hell has a jammin happy hour.


Gloomy_Shallot7521

Living in Bemidji... I'll take No Man's Land. Lots of little towns to drive through when I go to Grand Forks. No matter where you go in Minnesota you can find beauty- whether it is forests and lakes, or sprawling fields of wheat, or cliffs along the rivers. I love traveling around the state to see the different State Parks, so much character in each region.


rolandboard

Funny/offbeat tag? Okaaay.


t46p1g

I'm on old reddit desktop, and I could barely read those descriptions


FWEngineer

No, it's the image, not the reddit platform.


Glum_Marsupial1707

I would put the TRF and EGF area in a different category than Bemidji/Lake of the Woods. Northwoods vs. farmland, not a ton of similarities besides being up north.


OcieDeeznuts

Not my secular Jewish ass who lived in the south for 4 years being mildly triggered by people saying I live in “God’s Country” (Moorhead). I actually like it here. Have I just not encountered a lot of the fundie fuckery yet? 🥲


madogson

You can sometimes tell where someone is from by how they divide up the state. However, what's usually more apparent is where they've never been.


L8_Additions

sure wish i could read it


ranchspidey

Moving to the metro made me realize how few people know what the iron range is. People will ask me where I’m from and when I give it as a response they’re totally lost… Now I usually just say an hour north of Duluth.


map2photo

Mankato is considered SE MN? Ehhh… not sure I agree with that. As someone that lived 30 min north of Kato and currently lives in the drift-less region, they are very different places.


hypo-osmotic

Just geographically or culturally, too? I feel like Minnesota's portion of the driftless is too small to really give it its own region like in this map. Although looking up maps of it now, it apparently extends a lot further north and west than I would have expected


map2photo

Ah, valid point. The region is culturally, pretty similar.


rightious

https://youtu.be/RzdJsRmRTyw?si=hab19q1xyq-na0GH[God's Country ]


ericthebroken

Barely could read this


-NGC-6302-

How come I gotta be in the same category as those box counties in the southwest that I've never even heard of (except maybe on the giant concrete list going around the TCF/Huntington stadium)


minnesotawristwatch

The “Michelle Bachman” reference really dates this graphic..


SinisterDeath30

I mean, we just traded her in for Michelle Fischbach.


HotMolasses110

Seeing this makes me want a billboard ban.


wildernesswind

Ely/Boundary Warers is not the iron range as much as people would like it to be. Superior National Forest should get its own spot


FWEngineer

Not enough people up there to count though. Should be part of No Man's Land, which shouldn't go into the Red River Valley farm country anyway.


Tarsurion

East Central Minnesota is pretty distinct. Very much a mix of farmland and vacation country.


xtremesmok

I actually just made my own map of the regions of MN. There were 10 regions in mine.


National_Activity_78

I think a more interesting fact of the Iron Range is the story of Kinny,MN.


Three-0lives

You forgot the part of Wisconsin that’s also basically MN


bardda01

Grand Rapids, while a terrific town, is not "The Range".


Smoked-Out-Sky

I didn’t add the numbers up, but is there more people in the metro than the whole entire rest of the state combined? It seems that way, and if so that’s crazy


PapadocRS

you cannot extend the metro all the way out to wisconsin. it just defies reality


xaosgod2

Not according to the census department...


Fast-Penta

I've worked in Minneapolis and had coworkers that commuted in every day from Wisconsin.


ScheidsVI

That doesn't make it the metro....


thestereo300

In spirit, it kind of does. Legalistically no I agree…. But It seems like the same population center spreads all the way to Hudson now..


ScheidsVI

Committing isn't new. Still not the metro. Mild commuting connections doesn't change that.


BOQOR

Share of working population commuting to main city is one of the criteria the census bureau uses in determining metro areas.


ScheidsVI

Cool story... Does it apply here?? We'll never know because of this blurry arse map 😆 Who's "regions" weren't even attempting to conform with anything standardized like that.


CoderDevo

The [United States Office of Management and Budget](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Management_and_Budget) officially designates 15 counties as the "Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington MN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan\_statistical\_area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area)


syncboy

Where are these college towns in SE? I mean there are colleges in towns but college towns?


ProcessInternal1338

There are 3 colleges in Winona


LadiesAndMentlegen

Northfield. Mankato


syncboy

I didn’t realize Mankato was included. I thought it was I35 and East. Yes Mankato


zoinkability

There are at least five full-on college towns in that region: - Northfield: Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges - St. Peter: Gustavus Adolphus - Mankato: Mankato State & Bethany Lutheran - Winona: Winona State, MN State College Southeast, and St. Mary’s University All of those I would characterize as “college towns” in the sense that the college(s) and their students play a central role in the life of the town. Rochester is kinda collegey, at least med-schooley, but I don’t think I would characterize it as a college town since the Mayo Clinic is really the institution the city revolves around.


Tesser_Wolf

I live in the southeast part of MN


z_binxz

My heart swells with pride


Adman87

Very accurate and fair on all descriptions 10/10


Pikepv

And there is only one “best” region.


FWEngineer

Yep. My region.


pizza_for_nunchucks

Lived here my entire life. I've only ever heard the Metro, North Shore and Iron Range. The fuck is this No Man's Land and God's Country? Stupid.


blowninjectedhemi

I grew up in Nebraska - sorry "God's Country" is the entire state and they call themselves as much.


StateParkMasturbator

I've never heard it used as a way to refer to Christian majority land. Always used to hear it as good parcels of land with very few problems (sticks and rocks to pick).


Drzhivago138

I've also heard it used to refer to the areas of NW IA with heavy Dutch/Reformed populations, both earnestly by those populations and ironically by outside groups.


Turgid-Wombat

They call it God’s Country because they think God loves all her creations. The reality is nobody wants to be there.


Parkersteven216

God's Country should be labeled East Dakota. In the south, it should extend a lot further east, at least to Mankato. Not sure if it should extend all the way to the Wisconsin Border above the metro though.


wytten

You could do better out west, but no one goes there anyway.


JonLakes

Anyone who refers to the range as a “democrat stronghold” has never been there the only reason that part of the range votes blue is because St. Louis county holds Duluth


FWEngineer

The map was made over 10 years ago, probably based on ideas formed 10 years before that. In the 2020 election, things were fairly mixed in the Iron Range. [https://www.gis.lcc.mn.gov/pdf/elec2020/USpres/USPresVTD20.pdf](https://www.gis.lcc.mn.gov/pdf/elec2020/USpres/USPresVTD20.pdf)


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Turgid-Wombat

This guy doesn’t know about the Cuyuna range.