I always thought of Missouri as being more Midwestern in culture. After the Civil War, many Southerners and pro-slavery supporters left the state, and there was reconstruction and industrialization. Just before the war, residents from other Midwestern states like Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were already a large part of the population, and by the end of the war they outnumbered Southerners 2 to 1, not to mention the many Germans and other Europeans. However, aspects of Southern culture remained in the state. Some people even say that Missouri is not a Midwestern state. Probably this is stronger in the Ozarks region.
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I was under the impression Missouri is about as Midwestern as it gets.
Midwestern, for sure.
New Yorker here. I think it’s one of those states that straddle the line. Like Oklahoma, Nevada, and Maryland.
Both but not super entrenched in either. Although if I had to choose I’d say southern
As someone from the northern midwest, I wouldn’t consider Missouri a midwestern state.
I mean the more South you go, the more Southern it gets. I always thought of my state as Midwestern though.
With that said I have seen Confederate flags in rural north Missouri and even Iowa.
I was from Tennessee for a while in my youth, and a girl from Missouri moved in across the street; I thought she sounded like a northerner. 60 years later and other states in the rear view mirror, Missouri sounds pretty southern.
Ive lived in the northeast and new orleans, have been to st louis a few times.
Definitely thought Missouri was midwestern.
In the Ozarks, you almost have go house by house. House #1 on the farm road might have folks that sound like any old Americans. House #2 might be full of Boomhauers. House #3, Amish, with a German language heirloom desk Bible. House #4, retirees from California that no one likes because they’re more racist and paranoid than even the Ozarks stereotypes, so they give us all a bad name.
Technically “The South” is anything south of the Mason-Dixon Line. That said, I’ve also never heard anyone refer to Missouri as a southern state, so apparently there are exceptions. For reference, I live in the actual South.
I would say midwestern
Everywhere past Connecticut is The South.
I live in the St. Louis metro area. It’s…both. There’s the midwestern friendliness with some southern influences with food (bbq, maybe the fried catfish). I’m pretty sure this area has the northern most Waffle House, really.
I live in Missouri and it depends partially what part of the state you are in. Remember, Missouri was a slave state. I would say overall we are more midwestern culturally, but some of the more rural parts, particularly around the boot heel can feel more Southern.
As a Northerner, it feels very Southern, but I guess it doesn’t to Southerners.
I haven’t lived there, but know people who have. I think the line runs through Missourri. St Louis is the midwest, but southern Missourri is called “Missourrah” for a reason.
How about we come to a compromise on this
Missouri is a perfect example of why ‘midwest’ is a bad label.
Ask someone from MN, WI, MI they’ll probably say southern. Ask someone from the south they’ll say Midwest.
100% midwestern. Visited the KC suburbs many times when my mom’s parents were still alive.
I’m from the Deep South, but my BIL lives in Missouri. If y’all want to give MO midwestern vibes, I’m all for it because it makes my own state look like the height of progressivism. I’ll give KC and STL the benefit of the doubt, but the rest of it? I’ve never seen so many Confederate flags.
People from the South will say it is part of the Midwest. People from the Northern Midwest will say it is in the South.
Missouri is Midwest
Missurah is southern
Growing up there I always thought of it as a midwestern state. Now living in Chicago and married to a man from Milwaukee I feel less certain of that. I once heard someone say I-44 is the dividing line between cultural north and south and that feels correct.
According to the US census, it’s 46% Midwest, 51% Southern, within statistical models, with about 3% y’all git.
Missouri is interesting because it’s like 7 different regions in 1 state
If you were a slave state, you’re not Midwestern.
I can’t speak to the northern half but as a Texan who drove up through Branson up to a little north of Sullivan, it never felt like I left the South, maybe not quite the Deep South but it definitely didn’t feel like I’d entered the Midwest.
No offence, I just call Missouri “The Heartland” since it’s located in the heart of the United States. It’s where The Great Plains, The Ozarks, and The Midwest all intersect.
Yes, I imagine Missouri gets more southern the closer you get to the border with Arkansas while St.Louis is more likely to identify as a midwestern city. I mean, the same thing happens in lower midwestern states, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, the southern parts of the state have a strong southern influence.
Missouri’s identity is difficult to pin down.
Neither. It’s a gradient state.
Midwest. Although Minnesotans think were Southern
It’s Midwestern until you get to the southern part of the state nearest to Arkansas.
When I’m in Columbia, it feels very Midwest to me. But Jefferson City, just 30 miles away, feels more Southern. In my personal experience, the further south and east you go, the more it feels like the South. St. Louis feels closer to the South. Kansas City is very Midwest. Joplin feels more Midwest than Cape Girardeau does. Branson is an outpost of the Bible Belt.
I don’t think you can draw a clear line across the state, but it definitely has both cultures.
A geographic map shows that northern Missouri is a great plains state while southern Missouri is hilly with the Ozarks being the hilliest. Northern half of Missouri is Midwest. Sounthern half of Missouri has more in common with hillbilly Kentucky and Arkansas. It not quite Southern enough to be simular to Tennessee though.
I lived in Missouri. Ozarks and the Northeast corner.
It’s both, and it depends on where you are as to how much it is one or the other. It’s not ‘really’ the south, but it’s also not ‘really’ the midwest.
It’s a crossroads state: little bit Southern, little bit Midwestern, little bit the Great Plains. It’s its own thing.
Southeast Missouri native here – everyone from my hometown and surrounding areas were VERY southern. Further north, AKA St. Louis area people and further north, seemed more midwestern (and identified as such). My mom even called people who lived more than 50-60 miles north of us “Yankees”.
In Branson they’re huge on being a western town.
Both, but most areas not as southern as they once were. My grandad grew up on the boarder in atchison KS but they farmed in the St Jo area where his family had lived for several generations. St Jo is pretty far north, but my grandad has a lot of very southern mannerisms and culture.
You can tell whether their a northern Missouri or a Southern Missoura by the way they say the states name lol
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Missoura??
Southern
Mizzou is in the SEC, so under NCAA v Regional Conferences, it is southern.
I think Mark Twain, or Will Rogers, one of those assholes, said something like Missouri is a bunch of crackers if you are a Yankee, a bunch of Yankees if you are a southerner, East Coast if you are west, and west of you are east. I agree, y’all ain’t west.
Northern Missouri is more Midwestern. Southern Missouri is more Southern.
The Ozark Plateau covers the southern half of the state, and that’s certainly a rural white/hillbilly culture. I visited West Plains and Poplar Bluff when I was at Fort Leonard Wood for training, and that felt quite Southern.
It is Southern, Midwestern, and Great Plains. The Northern and Western parts are Great Plains; Kansas city is two cities one in KS and one in MO and is Great Plains. St Louis MO is across river from East St Louis IL and is Midwest. Southern MO is Southern
Missouri bbq is not southern bbq. Nuff said.
As someone from the undisputed South, Missouri is Midwest. I’ve only been as far north as Springfield but still couldn’t get a decent glass of sweet tea. I was also very disappointed in the food. I guess I am just spoiled by flavorful food.
(sigh) we’re never going to figure this out
I live 20 minutes from Iowa, and it’s very culturally Midwestern. But as you get towards Arkansas, it’s nearly indistinguishable from the deep south
south Indiana is more Southern than Missouri, but I also wouldn’t consider Missouri the Midwest 🤣 Missouri is like what Dallas and Houston are in Texas, they’re in a Southern state but have ZERO Southern culture. Both of Missouri’s major cities are so far from each other, on literal opposite ends of the state so they have different vibes, St Louis is on the Illinois border and Kansas City is well… near Kansas, I would argue Missouri is a Central state lol, it has more in common with Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma than it does to the other two regions. Because on the Midwest side when you look at a state like Michigan, it doesn’t have the same vibe as Missouri same goes for the south, when you look at Alabama it’s not the same culture as Missouri.
Mizzou plays in the SEC therefore southern. Same reason why Los Angeles and Eugene Oregon are midwestern regions of the country
When I was growing up there (late 70s to early 00s), it felt very Midwestern.
The more I go back to visit, now, the more culturally Southern it feels.
Not sure if I changed or Missouri changed but I have my theories.
Yes
According to the Southeastern Conference it is southern. According to southerners I would bet a months pay a solid majority say midwestern.
Maybe Midwestern with hints of Mid-South al la Arkansas and Oklahoma. Definitely not Southeastern like Georgia or the Carolinas.
I don’t think it’s specifically either. A lot of the “southernness” everyone is getting is from the Appalachian influence in the Ozarks (and sharing borders with southern states). I think Ozarks is kind of its own thing.
If you have to fit it on this spectrum, the state is a gradient. The northern half is undoubtedly midwestern. The southern parts resemble the south, especially to a northerner.
tbh I’d really only put STL in with the midwest
Everyone saying “both” is correct. Get far to the south and east and its southern. Go up north and west its midwestern.
My dad’s family is from the south (Mississippi and Tennessee) and they moved to St. Louis before my dad was born. They ALWAYS considered STL, and the greater state, part of the Midwest.
I’ve visited quite a lot and most of the state feels a lot more like the south than the Midwest, to me. But I grew up on the west coast, so 🤷♂️
Lower Midwestern which is its own category.
Yes.
Edit: there’s a reason that there was the Missouri compromise. Also, it’s even more messy. It’s not like the counties that swung confederate were in the southern part of the state. More like a swath in the middle. Real brother against brother stuff. It’s partly Southern and partly not. And the “dividing line” is not clear.
I think both. There are some rural parts of the state (especially with the Ozark), but St Louis and Kansas City are both large cities.
As a southerner who has spent a little bit of time in MO, I found it to be more midwestern. I was only in Cape Girardeau (multiple weekends a month over about 5 month) and one day in St. Louis, but it felt midwestern without many similarities.
Missourah is barely even a state. Culturally, it’s a trailer park on a flood plain.
It really depends on what part of Missouri. The state straddles several regional borders, not just Southern and Midwestern, but also Great Plains and central Midwestern rolling hill country.
Plus we’ve got two very different “Southern” regions: the Ozarks, which are most similar to Appalachia; and the Bootheel, which is more like the Deep South.
For example, my mom grew up in Bethany, way up near the Iowa line. There was nothing Southern about her town at all, it was purely Midwestern.
But I grew up in Hollister, right near Branson. That was far more Southern, in the Ozarkian, Appalachian-esque sense. (Though it was still a culture shock when we moved to Louisiana for a couple of years, and got to experience the REAL South!)
Even once you get close to Missouri in Iowa, it starts feeling more southern. I would argue the South half of MO is Southern in the sense that Kentucky is Southern.
I44 is the dividing line- north of it it’s Midwestern with southern touches, south of it its Souther with Midwestern touches. St Louis is as far west as you can get with an Eastern City feel, Kansas City is as far east as you can get with a Western City Feel.
It’s Missouri, it’s right in the middle of the country, Hartfield MO (just south of I44) is the geographic center of the population of the US same number that live north and south of the latitude line going through there, some number living east and west by longitude.
It’s both. St. Louis and KCMO have remnants of southern and midwestern culture
Midwestern… in the north. You get past the lake if the ozarks or Mark Twain National Forest and up into the Ozarks in southern Missouri, and you are in spillover southern ass Arkansas, my friend
Missouri is a border state in the unique position of being a slave state that didn’t secede. The southern culture is, predicably, mostly found the further south you go.
I would classify Springfield as an outright southern city, having much more in common with northwest Arkansas than with any of the other cities in Missouri. However, this is a controversial statement, since many in Springfield have ties to St Louis and feel much less connected to their Arkansas neighbors. This divided sense of cultural ties is representative of the state at large.
Missouri is kind of inbetween southern and Midwestern. The southern half of Illinois and Indiana also have kind of a southern feel but Missouri definitely is the class of the Midwest when it comes to the endearing aspects of southern culture
They have one of the all time great American bbq meccas in K.C. , and even their secondary bbq scene in Saint Louis is on a higher level than any other midwestern bbq scene. They even have the great “Burgers smoke house” exporting high quality smoked bacon and ham up here to Chicago and a bunch of great country/soulfood type restruants.
They have a strong music scene with a lot of southern soul that’s probably tied for second or third best in the Midwest with Detroit being 1 and Chicago being 2nd. Shout out to Cleveland too they rock.
It’s definitely Midwestern with some southern influence. especially when you get down into the bootheel.
Good question! I recently visited and I would say Kansas City Midwestern, and an hour South of there so it’s fully Southern vibes.
Also was a slave state.
As a Northerner, I think of it as more southern than northern. It isn’t Alabama but they still have an accent different from northern states
Missouri is just a shit hole.
There’s nothing Midwest about Missouri outside of Saint Louis.
I have friends from Missouri. It’s not really the south, but it’s very country. Very similar. Down to earth people who like a simple life. Country music is big there.
As a midwesterner- I feel we can claim the St. Louis metro area and the rest of it is pretty southern. Stl metro is very specifically midwestern tho
It is sort of both.
As you drive through it and stop at the gas stations you can hear the accent and words change.
It’s Southern lite to me
The I-70 corridor is Midwestern and that’s where everyone lives so I’d say the state as a whole is Midwestern with some pockets that have southern influence
Southern.
(but it really means a lot to them to say they are Midwestern and it’s not worth arguing about so we just let them)
North Missouri is basically Iowa, so very midwestern. KC is a very midwestern city, but with great BBQ (southern flare). St. Louis is also very Midwestern and has some southern flare with added rust belt ruggedness. Southern Missouri is mostly the Ozarks which has it‘s own, Appalachian descended culture and parts of southern Missouri are stereotypically southern.
Pretty diverse state, it‘s the geographical and population center of the nation so it makes sense that it doesn‘t neatly fit into one category.
My opinion as someone who hasn’t lived in Missouri but has visited different parts:
Missouri is a bit of both. Historically, it was considered part of the South (below the Mason-Dixon line) and it was a slave state, but it was also one of just 3 Southern states that didn’t join the Confederacy and stayed loyal to the Union. Most people who think of Southern states do NOT think of Missouri. However, most people who think of Midwestern states also don’t think of Missouri…
If you were going to twist my arm to pick one, as someone who has lived in both Illinois and Iowa, I’d say that it’s part of the Midwest, but doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the Midwest. People from Missouri do their own thing. It’s a really interesting place to visit.
It’s got two major cities: St. Louis and Kansas City. The cities are, well, cities. They’re pretty liberal. They’re known for good food. I’m personally not the biggest fan of Kansas City. People from my city (Des Moines) go down there for things like their Great Wolf Lodge and Lego Discovery Center. It’s not a city that strikes me as very unique or worth traveling to, I guess. I think St. Louis is a charming city, though!
If you go outside of the cities, you end up driving on a lot of rural highways. They aren’t rural highways like corn growing everywhere. It tends to be very lush. If you go south, you eventually end up in the Ozarks. Some of the rural homes and such seem very remote with like no towns and services nearby. In that regard, it can feel more Southern. I had a sister who lived in central Missouri for awhile. I’d drive for like an hour on these two-lane highways and finally come to her town. It’s a little weird that the towns aren’t all connected by interstate, but, honestly, it’s really charming to drive through. However, something I can’t speak to is whether or not a person of color would find it charming to drive through the small highways through the rolling hills.
Missouri is actually quite beautiful. In northern Missouri, you can visit Mark Twain Cave. In central/southern Missouri, you can visit Johnson Shut-Ins and the Ozarks. A place my family likes to visit and stay is the YMCA Trout Lodge. I have a friend who likes to travel to the Missouri National Recreational River area in Missouri and says it should be a national park. I haven’t been there myself, though.
the defining trait of Missouri is the lack of culture.
I don’t think it’s either. It’s not culturally Midwest but it’s not southern either.
Below about I-44 Missouri mirrors Arkansas-Southwest Missouri is Ozarkian, while the area over by the Mississippi River is very much Delta culture. Above I-44 on the west side very much feels midwestern and feels more midwestern as you go north while St Louis is its own separate culture that is midwestern in some ways and even a little east coast in other ways.
This is just general guidance, it isn’t like there is a stark divide at I-44 but more that it is a good reference point for the north south divide in the state.
I consider it Midwest, but there’s some Southern in there for sure.
I went to HS in Neosho, MO (1988 – 1992). Apparently it was at one stage a temporary capitol for the Confederacy.
I can attest, even there in the foothills of the Ozarks, that during my time in HS, the “South” was very much alive. A lot of the people I knew also spoke fondly of Confederacy, and there’d be Civil War battle reinactments regularly where in the real Civil War the North won, but in the reinactments the South always won. Racism was also very much alive.
It might be different now, as more people from the South (America) have been slowly migrating to the area. I met a lot of people from South American countries when I was last there in 2006. Whereas during HS the only variation was 2 African-American students in the whole district.
Native St Louisian here. Neither and both. Missouri north of I-70 is indistinguishable from
Iowa. Southwest MO (Springfield, Joplin) have more in common with Oklahoma than Arkansas, and KCMO is a Great Plains city. St. Louis grew up as a river city trading grains along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers.
Missouri never had the huge plantation economy that the South had. Truthfully, Missouri is where the South, Midwest, and Great Plains meet.
I’m from MN and Missouri is fully a southern state in my mind. To consider it Midwest feels like an April fools joke.
I have been there, but it was 15 years ago.
Gateway arch is supposed to be the gateway to the west and both the chiefs and the rams (when they were in St Louis) play in the west.
It must be a western cowboy state /s
I live in southern Iowa right on the Missouri border, and I think at least northern Missouri is solidly midwestern.
Neither
Southern-Midwestern.
If I had to pick I’d say southern.
Around the start of the U. S. Civil War, the loyalties tended more to the south than to the north and people were violently divided there. Some (‘white’ citizens) fled to nearby ‘northern’ states for safety. That’s how strongly some felt about retaining slavery.
Look at old Missouri newspapers. You will see ads featuring people for sale. It is nauseatingly shocking to actually see that. It’s one thing to know it intellectually. Another thing to see it literally spelled out and listing their ‘attributes.’
Today it still differs from neighboring states in some ways. I want to add the people are very friendly and it’s very family oriented. I don’t want to promote any cliches.
But if you ask if it’s more southern or not, its history points more to the south.
Here is another tell.
Mark Twain was considered very southern, a southern gentleman, and his persona maximized that, with his drawl and his white linen suits.
He was from Hannibal, Missouri.
It depends on who you ask.
The South is not just The South. Missouri is considered Upland South, though the northern part of Missouri trends more Midwest. One of the main factors that separates most of Missouri from the traditional “South” is the low Black population. With the exception of St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri is a very White state, with the largest ancestry group being German. Deep South states have larger Black populations, with African ancestry comprising the largest group.
I’m in Minnesota. So to me, Missouri is southern. I’m sure Arkansas and Mississippi think it’s Midwestern.
South of I44 is the south, north of I70 is the kids West. In between is a hodgepodge of both.
“Missourah” – Southern
“Missouri” – Midwestern
“Misery” – Everyone else.
“Let’s change it from ‘The Show-Me State’ to ‘Misery loves company!’”
As a Chicagoan anything south of Kankakee is “southern” feeling to me.
IIRC, The southerners call it Missouruh, all others Missouree
Southern Missouri feels Appalachian almost with the ozark mountains. Northern Missouri feels just like Iowa or Nebraska, so is midwestern. St Louis has subtle east coast vibes and Kansas City has subtle west coast vibes. It really is a big melting pot of the American regions surrounding it
Depends on the part of Missouri. My relatives are mostly from Southeast Missouri and it’s very much more southern than it is Midwestern. Once you get up further north, especially St Louis area it’s very Midwestern.
The Ozarks are VERY Southern…. in all the bad bigoted ways. I have never experienced a subculture that takes more PRIDE in being racist, sexist, or homophobic, as good, upstanding christians should be.
My man (a tad under 50) grew up in Springfield, MO. He would learn about, and laugh about, the local lynching history in school. It was normal for his upbringing at home, school, and church. College (Northern MO, very small town) was the first time this mindset was challenged, and he corrected his thinking and ways.
All that being said, when he moved to Texas for grad school he was constantly called “damn yankee” by the natives.
Missouri is a mixed bag. Northern MO is very much like IA/NE. Farmland, climate, economy, etc.
SWMO is more similar to OK/AR/TX, and SEMO is more similar to KY/TN/MS
St. Louis has been described as the Westernmost Eastern City and the Easternmost Western City.
They literally built the Arch as The Gateway to the West.
Dad grew up in far southwestern Missouri and it always seemed culturally real southern when I visited as a kid. Missouri north if I70 could almost be Iowa.
I live in St. Louis, MO.
Missouri is Midwestern, Southern, and Northern.
We’re right in the middle and get all the bits.
As someone living in a part of the country that is far removed from the South I would without any hesitation say Missouri is absolutely the South.
It’s a former slave state and in many areas that belief that slavery was right and good— and even that it might not be a bad idea to bring it back again—never really left.
It leans left/liberal in a few big cities. It’s right to far right, just about everywhere else.
It reminds me of Arkansas, though it’s a more prosperous state than that. To me, it’s a Southern State at heart, regardless of its physical, geographic location in the Mid West.
I drive through Missouri once a year to get to Missourah
Yes