If you live in Michigan, you live in the Midwest, right? Well, maybe not. While the U.S. Census Bureau defines the Midwest as a 12 state region between Ohio and North Dakota, many other organizations and individuals have their own definitions.
Cartographer Bill Rankin decided to explore the many maps of the Midwest, compiling them all into a single image. The final result included more than the census Bureau’s 12 states. It even included other countries.
Current State’s Emanuele Berry spoke with Rankin, who runs the site Radical Cartography, about trying to map the Midwest. Rankin says prior to this project, he thought of the Midwest as a rather small region that included the states surrounding the Chicago area.