Statistics confirm I live in the "middle of nowhere"

[downtoearth]

This made me laugh - I mean, none of us in MT have disputed that we aren't in the middle of nowhere...

www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/02/20/using-the-best-data-possible-we-set-out-to-find-the-middle-of-nowhere/?utm_term=.8f6d5eaef3e9

Small towns in the middle of nowhere...

Larger "cities" in the middle of nowhere...

[downtoearth]

Oh and the idea of why they mapped this was really interesting - it's to help equate distance to from cities to level of care in 3rd world countries

In the United States, being far from a major city means that it’s harder to access specialized types of health care, as well as things such as certain elite institutions of higher learning and international airports.

In the developing world, living in a remote location is measurably worse for your well-being. They're not only harder to reach, but they also can host endemic diseases such as the malaria that Weiss and his colleagues are helping to eradicate.

In low-income and middle-income countries especially, the researchers write, the link between access to cities and well-being is “unequivocal.” The access itself also is harder to come by. In developed nations, they found, 90.7 percent of the population lives within an hour of a major city (see, for example, the entire eastern half of any of our maps), while in low-income countries, only 50.9 percent does.

Western Kansas won’t be struck by a malaria outbreak. Tropical diseases aren’t festering within the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. But the same data that gave us the power to determine what makes a speck on the Nevada map or a stretch of the Montana Badlands unique also will empower researchers worldwide.

[Velar Fricative]

What are the stats re: Montanans and passports/enhanced IDs? I figure Calgary is close-ish compared to everywhere else in America.

[mbcdefg]

I've lived my whole life in a very densely populated area (North Jersey), and it really boggles my mind that there are parts of this country in which nobody lives. 

My first trip out west was when now-MH and I were in our young 20s and went to Vegas. I spent a lot of time staring out the window at the deserts, just stunned that there were such vast areas of"nothing." And then a big city plunked down right in the middle, surrounding by more "nothing." Amazing.

Maps like these, too, blow my mind:


These Are All the Places in the United States Where Nobody Lives

www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-are-all-places-united-states-where-nobody-lives-180951367/




Half Of The United States Lives In These Counties


www.businessinsider.com/half-of-the-united-states-lives-in-these-counties-2013-9

[jeaniebueller]

Marquette, MI and Ispheming, MI seem like really weird choices considering Marquette County proper has 67K people in it and a college campus. And its an hour from Houghton County, which has 36K people and another college campus. Neither of which are cow towns. BUT the UP is far as fuck from metro Detroit or any other large city, I'll give them that.


mbcdefg, a lot of that 'nothing' map is just state and federally owned or managed land. My county of around 25k is just adjacent to one of those nothing spots.

[downtoearth]

Feb 20, 2018 14:52:12 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

What are the stats re: Montanans and passports/enhanced IDs? I figure Calgary is close-ish compared to everywhere else in America.

We don't even have IDs that meet RealID requirements for the US, so no enhanced IDs.  I found a map that said that nearly 50% (46.7%) have passports in MT, so half is quite a few IMO.

As far as distance to Calgary, though it's far. From that tiny area where the article said was "nowhere" to Calgary is almost 8 hours - and they are about 5 hours from our largest city (Billings). From one of our nearest towns to Calgary is only 5-5.5 hrs (Great Falls to Calgary). It's not close enough for services.

[downtoearth]

Feb 20, 2018 15:05:45 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

Marquette, MI and Ispheming, MI seem like really weird choices considering Marquette County proper has 67K people in it and a college campus. And its an hour from Houghton County, which has 36K people and another college campus. Neither of which are cow towns. BUT the UP is far as fuck from metro Detroit or any other large city, I'll give them that.


mbcdefg , a lot of that 'nothing' map is just state and federally owned or managed land. My county of around 25k is just adjacent to one of those nothing spots.

I was going to say the same... This land is your land, this land is my land, from the Pacific Ocean to the ...

[Deleted]

We went to Wyoming and Montana several years ago in mid September. I felt like we fell off the face of the earth. As an introvert who hates traffic, crowds, and hot weather, it kind of seemed like heaven.

[Dumbledork]

I grew up in a town of 900, about four hours from both Chicago and STL. I lived “in town” but could literally stand on my front porch and see a field of corn and cows.

I vividly remember going on vacation to Kansas City of all places when I was about 8 and being just in awe of the AT&T building. I just looked it up and it’s a 20 story building, lol.

I do not miss living in the middle of nowhere. I can’t go back and visit for more than a few days at a time or I go stir crazy. Especially now that my parents have moved to a town a little farther out that literally has two streets- one residential, one business.

Amazon hates delivering to them,lol.

[Velar Fricative]

Feb 20, 2018 15:12:39 GMT -5 @heyitsme said:

I travel a lot and I’m always shocked (obviously naively so) that there is “land” in between cities.

I will never forget flying to Denver, getting in a cab and seeing the Denver skyline clear as day from the airport. I thought the drive would be super short because downtown was right there. Nope. There was just nothing in between the airport and downtown except a very lengthy highway, or that’s just what it seemed like to me. It was really cool to someone who lives where just about every inch of land is inhabited by a thousand people.

[sugarglider]

San Bernardino County is cracking me up. It’s on both maps! (Just because it’s a huge county that buts up next to LA. The west part of the county is densely populated; inland is desert.)

[jenny1223]

I live an hour from the nearest stop light. I love it. I grew up in a suburb of Seattle and I hate going back and dealing with all the traffic and people.

[Velar Fricative]

Feb 20, 2018 15:28:34 GMT -5 sugarglider said:

San Bernardino County is cracking me up. It’s on both maps! (Just because it’s a huge county that buts up next to LA. The west part of the county is densely populated; inland is desert.)

I will say California did surprise me, but it makes sense - tons of people along the coast but that still lives a lot of land and not as many people to inhabit it.

[kkfeb04]

Feb 20, 2018 14:53:08 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

I've lived my whole life in a very densely populated area (North Jersey), and it really boggles my mind that there are parts of this country in which nobody lives. 

My first trip out west was when now-MH and I were in our young 20s and went to Vegas. I spent a lot of time staring out the window at the deserts, just stunned that there were such vast areas of"nothing." And then a big city plunked down right in the middle, surrounding by more "nothing." Amazing.

Maps like these, too, blow my mind:


These Are All the Places in the United States Where Nobody Lives

www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-are-all-places-united-states-where-nobody-lives-180951367/




Half Of The United States Lives In These Counties


www.businessinsider.com/half-of-the-united-states-lives-in-these-counties-2013-9

I'm shocked my county is on there! Now granted we have a ton of Amish but my school district is considered rural. We have to drive 25 miles to everything.

[pixy0stix]

That band of towns in KS? Where the dark pink is in NE? That's where I grew up.

When I went to NJ/Philly 2 years ago, it just felt like the whole east coast was one big city.

[aurora]

Feb 20, 2018 15:12:39 GMT -5 @heyitsme said:

I travel a lot and I’m always shocked (obviously naively so) that there is “land” in between cities.

Whereas I get really confused by endless cities! Where is the open space???

[isabel]

Feb 20, 2018 15:28:29 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Feb 20, 2018 15:12:39 GMT -5 @heyitsme said:

I travel a lot and I’m always shocked (obviously naively so) that there is “land” in between cities.

I will never forget flying to Denver, getting in a cab and seeing the Denver skyline clear as day from the airport. I thought the drive would be super short because downtown was right there. Nope. There was just nothing in between the airport and downtown except a very lengthy highway, or that’s just what it seemed like to me. It was really cool to someone who lives where just about every inch of land is inhabited by a thousand people.

Yeah, it’s not like that anymore. I wouldn’t exactly call it dense, but it’s rapidly filling in out there.

[pixy0stix]

Feb 20, 2018 15:44:49 GMT -5 isabel said:

Feb 20, 2018 15:28:29 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I will never forget flying to Denver, getting in a cab and seeing the Denver skyline clear as day from the airport. I thought the drive would be super short because downtown was right there. Nope. There was just nothing in between the airport and downtown except a very lengthy highway, or that’s just what it seemed like to me. It was really cool to someone who lives where just about every inch of land is inhabited by a thousand people.

Yeah, it’s not like that anymore. I wouldn’t exactly call it dense, but it’s rapidly filling in out there.

Which is dumb, because part of the reason why they moved it out there was to reduce the risk of an airline crash in densely populated areas, and to have room to grow.

[mbcdefg]

Feb 20, 2018 15:43:02 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

When I went to NJ/Philly 2 years ago, it just felt like the whole east coast was one big city.

I've spent a lot of time in NYC, Philly and Boston. And smaller but still big cities like Newark and Jersey City and Paterson.

I've went to both Kansas City and Houston for work-related things within the past few years, and the difference in the "feel" of the cities was so surprising to me. The colonial-era cities (or the ones from around that basic time frame) are just so different from the 19th century cities. The layout is so different.

[mbcdefg]

Feb 20, 2018 15:43:05 GMT -5 aurora said:

Feb 20, 2018 15:12:39 GMT -5 @heyitsme said:

I travel a lot and I’m always shocked (obviously naively so) that there is “land” in between cities.

Whereas I get really confused by endless cities! Where is the open space???

I interned for a NJ community paper in 2004, and one of my assignments was to ride one of those tourist helicopters over Manhattan. The aerial view of seeing Central Park just plunked down in the middle of all those skyscrapers was nuts:

[sangria]

When I moved from New England to Phoenix i drove cross country. I think it was in Texas or NM when I was minutes from running out of gas because I had no concept of vast distances without people in them.

I figured there would gas stations at least every 20ish miles at the absolute MOST.

[wawa]

Feb 20, 2018 14:53:08 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

I've lived my whole life in a very densely populated area (North Jersey), and it really boggles my mind that there are parts of this country in which nobody lives. 

One of my BFF's in college is from Long Island.  We went to school in Pittsburgh, and one of our first adventures together was to go caving in Ohio.  So we're driving through typical western PA/Ohio back roads to get to the place with the cave and she was just...confused.  

She understood that there are places with nobody (national parks, deserts, etc) and she understood that there were rural areas with lots of farms (like Amish country in Lancaster county wouldn't have confused her if we were much further east in PA), but she was totally baffled by this area with just woods and scrub and the occasional field and random houses here and there.  She was like, "there are PEOPLE here?  What do they DO?  Where do they WORK?"

I think the actual words that came out of her mouth as she's basically pressing her face to the window in awe was "I didn't think places like this still existed..." and I was SO CONFUSED.  
I eventually visited her parents house and then I kinda got her confusion...it's just one solid town with random name boundaries to three quarters of the way up the damn island...

[WOT?*]

Feb 20, 2018 15:29:29 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Feb 20, 2018 15:28:34 GMT -5 sugarglider said:

San Bernardino County is cracking me up. It’s on both maps! (Just because it’s a huge county that buts up next to LA. The west part of the county is densely populated; inland is desert.)

I will say California did surprise me, but it makes sense - tons of people along the coast but that still lives a lot of land and not as many people to inhabit it.

Having grown up in Central Cali (and born in San Bernardino) it didn't surprise me in the least. My dad's town still doesn't have a stop light. We were able to push my dad by wheelchair all the way across town with no problem and no real obstructions, "all the way" being about six blocks. And it's bigger than quite a few of the neighboring towns. The next one over is literally a four-way stop. Bar on one corner, restaurant (former auto parts store) on another, I forget what on the third and the fourth is fields. It's why so many don't believe me when I tell them that the vast majority of Cali, by land mass, is conservative red. Lots of rancher/agriculture conservative bubbles every which way.

[teeah22]

Feb 20, 2018 15:05:45 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

Marquette, MI and Ispheming, MI seem like really weird choices considering Marquette County proper has 67K people in it and a college campus. And its an hour from Houghton County, which has 36K people and another college campus. Neither of which are cow towns. BUT the UP is far as fuck from metro Detroit or any other large city, I'll give them that.


mbcdefg , a lot of that 'nothing' map is just state and federally owned or managed land. My county of around 25k is just adjacent to one of those nothing spots.

I grew up in Marquette (and went to college in Houghton).  Sure, there's people there, the population isn't tiny.  But it is so, so isolated.  It feels like the middle of nowhere, and like a much smaller town than it it.

[andreay82]

Colby,KS really is BFE. Good thing they have a Starbucks at the Oasis on the Plains!

[litebright]

Feb 20, 2018 15:43:05 GMT -5 aurora said:

Feb 20, 2018 15:12:39 GMT -5 @heyitsme said:

I travel a lot and I’m always shocked (obviously naively so) that there is “land” in between cities.

Whereas I get really confused by endless cities! Where is the open space???

I grew up in rural NW Ohio (which on this map is not even one of the most-rural areas -- we were about an hour from Toledo). When I was in high school, I spent a summer in Boston at summer school and then long-distance-"dated" a guy I met there for a year. He was from Long Island, and he got such a kick out of some of the questions country-mouse me asked him. Like, how did people know where one town started and the other stopped without any space between them? (Because where I grew up, you had to drive at least 10 minutes through corn and soybean fields to get to the next town.) Or, did they have dark nights in New York? He was like, what do you mean, of course it gets dark! I was thinking of all the light pollution, the glow you can see in the country from any decent-sized town versus what it must be like in NYC -- compared to me living on a street with no lights, in a teeny town, where you can see a bazillion stars and I could open my eyes in my bedroom at night and it would be so dark that it was the exact same as having them closed. So yeah, night gets "dark" in New York -- but not like middle-of-nowhere dark. 

[al320]

Feb 20, 2018 16:43:06 GMT -5 wawa said:

Feb 20, 2018 14:53:08 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

I've lived my whole life in a very densely populated area (North Jersey), and it really boggles my mind that there are parts of this country in which nobody lives. 

One of my BFF's in college is from Long Island.  We went to school in Pittsburgh, and one of our first adventures together was to go caving in Ohio.  So we're driving through typical western PA/Ohio back roads to get to the place with the cave and she was just...confused.  

She understood that there are places with nobody (national parks, deserts, etc) and she understood that there were rural areas with lots of farms (like Amish country in Lancaster county wouldn't have confused her if we were much further east in PA), but she was totally baffled by this area with just woods and scrub and the occasional field and random houses here and there.  She was like, "there are PEOPLE here?  What do they DO?  Where do they WORK?"

I think the actual words that came out of her mouth as she's basically pressing her face to the window in awe was "I didn't think places like this still existed..." and I was SO CONFUSED.  
I eventually visited her parents house and then I kinda got her confusion...it's just one solid town with random name boundaries to three quarters of the way up the damn island...

I grew up in the northern suburbs of nyc, and im the same way as your friend. When im somewhere thats in the middle of nowhere, far from anything, and theres ONE random house, i imagine how far the drive is to a supermarket. And that their commute must be insane, but where do they even work? And that they definitely never go to the movies. Also, keep in mond, i have these thoughts in the catskills, so its like 2 hrs from the city lol

[LoveTrains]

That time I was on a thirty hour delayed Amtrak train we were stopped in Glasgow MT for about 18-20 hours. Home of the scotties!! The town has one stoplight, a pool hall and s McDonald's.

[cville]

Feb 20, 2018 23:03:45 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

That time I was on a thirty hour delayed Amtrak train we were stopped in Glasgow MT for about 18-20 hours. Home of the scotties!! The town has one stoplight, a pool hall and s McDonald's.

I bet the ice cream machine NEVER works at that McDonald's. Because they can't get them to work when there's one every .2 miles and therefore plenty of McD's competition.

[downtoearth]

Feb 20, 2018 23:03:45 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

That time I was on a thirty hour delayed Amtrak train we were stopped in Glasgow MT for about 18-20 hours. Home of the scotties!! The town has one stoplight, a pool hall and s McDonald's.

I live on MT and I’m pretty sure I have never stopped or stayed in Glasgow. It really is the middle of nowhere. But I love that you know they are the Scotties. Like the dog or Scottish people?