Timmy's States

[jimrtex]

Perhaps you could make Puerto Rico a state?

We could also do that. I really like that.
Should we stick with 50 states or are you okay going over that?

50 is nice, because then we don't have to switch flags

Not a problem.



51 Star Flag

51 Star Flag (continued)

[jimrtex]

You have split Amarillo and Midland-Odessa. I'd extend Texas to include the Little Texas area of New Mexico. I'd also redeem Greer County to Texas.

Terrell belongs with the rest of the Trans-Pecos.

I'd move Madison, Brazos, Burleson, Fayette, Gonzales, DeWitt, Karnes, and Bee to Houston.

[jimrtex]

You have split Amarillo and Midland-Odessa. I'd extend Texas to include the Little Texas area of New Mexico. I'd also redeem Greer County to Texas.

Terrell belongs with the rest of the Trans-Pecos.

I'd move Madison, Brazos, Burleson, Fayette, Gonzales, DeWitt, Karnes, and Bee to Houston.

Would Texas border Mexico in this arrangement?

No.  Eddy, Chaves, DeBaca, Lea, Roosevelt, Curry, and Quay in NM, along with the counties east of the Pecos in Texas.

[jimrtex]

I'd eliminate Durango, and split Texas into Texas and Commanche, though I might rename Texas to something else. What are the rules for names?

Commanche would include all of the Texas Panhandle and South Plains, and the area east of the Pecos, plus Little Texas, and Greer County. It could extend into the SW corner of Kansas and SE corner of Colorado.

Geronimo, which I would rename to Coronado, would include the northern part of New Mexico, and Colorado up to San Miguel, Ouray, Hinsdale, Saguache, Huerfano, Las Animas. Colorado would take in Gunnison, Chaffee, Fremont, Custer, Teller, El Paso, and Pueblo. Mesa, Delta, and Montrose go to Shoshone, and move the border in Utah to match. Shift Pawnee west to include Logan, Morgan, Washington, and Lincoln, Crowley, Otero, Prowers, Bent, and Kiowa.

[jimrtex]

Jimrtex I also considered the name Plano would be fitting since it is largely a Plains state.
What do you think about that?
I would definitely consider using the name Comanche if you still thought so.

It would be Llano rather than Plano.

I'd still extend Pawnee to include Logan, Morgan, Washington, Lincoln, Crowley, Kiowa, Otero, Prowers, Bent. These are definitely Plains or Lower Platte, Lower Arkansas counties, that fit better with the areas to the east, rather than the Front Range or Mountain areas.

I'd probably switch Baca and SW Kansas as well.

Incidentally, you have two different yellows in Pawnee.

[jimrtex]

Jimrtex I also considered the name Plano would be fitting since it is largely a Plains state.
What do you think about that?
I would definitely consider using the name Comanche if you still thought so.

If you are going to split San Antonio and Austin, Comal and Guadalupe go with Bexar.

I would keep all (most/more) of the Hill Country in Texas. So add Crockett, Sutton, Schleicher to Llano based on proximity to San Angelo; Menard, Kimble, Kerr, and Bandera to Texas. Kendall is problematic since it would be considered Hill Country and San Antonio suburban.

Lafayette and Vermillion belong in Jefferson to avoid splitting of Acadiana,

[jimrtex]

Fixed a few things.

If you wanted to include Puerto Rico, you could have an Eastern Isles: Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Monroe, Dare, Nassau, Suffolk, Newport, Nantucket, and Dukes.

Western Isles would include Hawaii, Guam, Northern Marianas, American Samoa, Aleutians (East and West), Kodiak, Sitka, and Outer Ketchikan.

[jimrtex]

If you wanted to include Puerto Rico, you could have an Eastern Isles: Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Monroe, Dare, Nassau, Suffolk, Newport, Nantucket, and Dukes.

Western Isles would include Hawaii, Guam, Northern Marianas, American Samoa, Aleutians (East and West), Kodiak, Sitka, and Outer Ketchikan.

I figure that PR is best to be on its own if it was a state. Nonetheless that idea is quite inventive, I have to admit.

Oops! I left out San Juan and Island from Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar)

[jimrtex]

Jimrtex I also considered the name Plano would be fitting since it is largely a Plains state.
What do you think about that?
I would definitely consider using the name Comanche if you still thought so.

It would be Llano rather than Plano.

I'd still extend Pawnee to include Logan, Morgan, Washington, Lincoln, Crowley, Kiowa, Otero, Prowers, Bent. These are definitely Plains or Lower Platte, Lower Arkansas counties, that fit better with the areas to the east, rather than the Front Range or Mountain areas.

I'd probably switch Baca and SW Kansas as well.

Incidentally, you have two different yellows in Pawnee.

Ah ok. Llano instead of Plano.
So give all of Plano's CO territory to Pawnee and exchange for which counties?
And nice catch regarding the two different yellows. I need to fix that.

Does there have to be an exchange?

[jimrtex]

Fixed?

I'd still move Pawnee another layer of counties to the west. You're still on the Plains.

[jimrtex]

Don't know if it's too late to suggest names, but I'd nominate Calumet for the Chicago Metro+SW MI and Milwaukee/Madison state.

As a potential Kennebec resident, I also think you might want to name Kennebec for the Northern Forest administrative region (something like Northwood?).

https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wild-Places/Northern-Forest.aspx

The region geographically dominates the proposed state (as you can see here: https://northernforest.org/the-center-and-region/interactive-map) and is common to all of them.

Forêt du Nord?

[jimrtex]

Gitchigumi is supposed to unite the mining belt around the Great Lakes. It unites the Finns in the Great Lakes area
It is one of my favorite states on the map.

You should ask Muon, BRTD or another poster of the region if it's sound from a socioeconomic point of view. Personally I have serious doubts, but I might be wrong.

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The split that I see most easily would be to make one State with only Cook, Du Page and Lake counties, another one with Milwaukee, Madison and the northern Chicago suburbs, and a third one with southwestern MI, northern IN, and the eastern Chicago suburbs. Two-way splits might be a bit trickier, but if you have to choose between putting Chicago with either Milwaukee or Indianapolis I'd say Milwaukee makes more sense.

Since the map started with the statement that the names could change but the borders were fixed I didn't weigh in. The inclusion of the MI LP doesn't fit in Gitchigumi at all. There's really no connection to the bulk of the population in MN. Linking the MI UP with the Twin Cities is fine.

An interesting variant of the state would be to cut off the LP, then run Gitchigumi all the way west across ND to Glasgow MT. That would pick up the whole area that speaks the North Central dialect, often thought of as the Minnesotan accent. If you do go that way, stay away from SD and the I-90 corridor. They don't speak Minnesotan.

My inclination would be run the green district up to the Twin Cities, and give it a river theme.

And then move Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Tri-Cities to the south.

I think Traverse City and Green Bay and Duluth fit together.

[jimrtex]

Jimrtex I also considered the name Plano would be fitting since it is largely a Plains state.
What do you think about that?
I would definitely consider using the name Comanche if you still thought so.

It would be Llano rather than Plano.

I'd still extend Pawnee to include Logan, Morgan, Washington, Lincoln, Crowley, Kiowa, Otero, Prowers, Bent. These are definitely Plains or Lower Platte, Lower Arkansas counties, that fit better with the areas to the east, rather than the Front Range or Mountain areas.

I'd probably switch Baca and SW Kansas as well.

Incidentally, you have two different yellows in Pawnee.

Ah ok. Llano instead of Plano.
So give all of Plano's CO territory to Pawnee and exchange for which counties?
And nice catch regarding the two different yellows. I need to fix that.

Does there have to be an exchange?

You mentioned one. I assumed you had a list of SW Kansas counties to put in Llano, especially given how detailed you were with Texas.

I was mainly trying to soak up the district that we eliminated. You could put the 4 SW Kansas counties into Llano based on the Hugoton Gas Field, or put it in Pawnee based on Kansas.

[jimrtex]

Don't know if it's too late to suggest names, but I'd nominate Calumet for the Chicago Metro+SW MI and Milwaukee/Madison state.

As a potential Kennebec resident, I also think you might want to name Kennebec for the Northern Forest administrative region (something like Northwood?).

https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wild-Places/Northern-Forest.aspx

The region geographically dominates the proposed state (as you can see here: https://northernforest.org/the-center-and-region/interactive-map) and is common to all of them.

Forêt du Nord?

Hey, Kennebec rhymes with Quebec.

Are people from the area Kennebeckers or Kennbecois?

[jimrtex]

I think Miami should take up a bit more area from Cadillac (is that how the beige one is named?). Right now you're splitting the Columbus area among them, and I think it would make more sense to have it all in Miami so that Cadillac becomes a cohesive community centered on Lake Erie (really, "Erie" would be a better name for it than for the green State, which is mostly on Lake Ontario ).

I really hope you find a way to follow Muon's advice and cut the Michigan LP away from Gitchigumi. You could then make a relatively cohesive LP State that takes some area from Cadillac (limiting it to the Detroit-Flint area) and La Salle (having it stop at Gary instead of continuing into North-central IN and Southwestern MI).

I also think you should partition Kootenai into Oregon and Yellowstone. The States there really seem redundant to me.

And, sorry to insist, but the Baltimore area really belongs in Washington and not in Susquehanna.

Back in the day, Michigan had one congressional district based on the Huron-Superior shore and another on the Michigan shores. The upper L.P. doesn't have significant agriculture or manufacturing. Tourism and summer homes should be considered extractive industries, just like lumbering and mining.

Another approach would be to convert the grey district to a National Road theme (St.Louis, Indianapolis, Springfield (Dayton?), Columbus, Zanesville) and the SW Ohio district to an Ohio River district (Evansville to Pittsburgh?). Allegheny could scoop down through the Cumberland Gap.

How about including Chesapeake Bay in Susquehanna?

I would flip the names of Columbia and Oregon. Oregon would have been understood as meaning the Willamette Valley, and Columbia as the interior beginning a Fort Vancouver. When Oregon Territory created two counties in the north, Lewis and Clarke (sic), Lewis was west of the Cascades, and still exists south of Olympia. Clarke was east of the Cascades with an extension down to Fort Vancouver. In this case it the extension that survives as Clark County,

Perhaps name the western district as Cascadia, and the interior as Columbia.

I perceive Kootenai as being a mountain district, and Yellowstone as plains. So I would give Valley, Lemhi, Custer, Beaverhead, Gallatin, Park (both), and Teton to Kootenai.and bring Yellowstone a bit further west but not to the Continental Divide. This assume Yellowstone is named for the river and not the park.

[jimrtex]

Back in the day, Michigan had one congressional district based on the Huron-Superior shore and another on the Michigan shores. The upper L.P. doesn't have significant agriculture or manufacturing. Tourism and summer homes should be considered extractive industries, just like lumbering and mining.

Another approach would be to convert the grey district to a National Road theme (St.Louis, Indianapolis, Springfield (Dayton?), Columbus, Zanesville) and the SW Ohio district to an Ohio River district (Evansville to Pittsburgh?). Allegheny could scoop down through the Cumberland Gap.

How about including Chesapeake Bay in Susquehanna?

I would flip the names of Columbia and Oregon. Oregon would have been understood as meaning the Willamette Valley, and Columbia as the interior beginning a Fort Vancouver. When Oregon Territory created two counties in the north, Lewis and Clarke (sic), Lewis was west of the Cascades, and still exists south of Olympia. Clarke was east of the Cascades with an extension down to Fort Vancouver. In this case it the extension that survives as Clark County,

Perhaps name the western district as Cascadia, and the interior as Columbia.

I perceive Kootenai as being a mountain district, and Yellowstone as plains. So I would give Valley, Lemhi, Custer, Beaverhead, Gallatin, Park (both), and Teton to Kootenai.and bring Yellowstone a bit further west but not to the Continental Divide. This assume Yellowstone is named for the river and not the park.

I named Cadillac after the guy who founded Detroit. YMMV.
Why not have all of Columbus Metro in Cadillac and have Miami take up Metro Louisville and parts of rural IN next door from OH? The reason I left it in Kentucky was to avoid underpopulating that state. Two more inventive proposals. One of reasons I gave SW Ohio its own state was to preserve Allegheny's mountainous character.
Switching (and/or renaming wholesale) Oregon and Columbia is something I will seriously look at.

Western West Virginia is not mountainous it is hilly

[jimrtex]

Well I didn't say Allegheny was completely mountainous; it certainly isn't. However in its current incarnation it is centered on the Appalachian mountains and the culture that predominates there. What I meant was that by adding Metro Cinnicati to it I would be diluting that as well as throwing the area in with other places that collectively do not share in the Lower Ohio River culture that metro Louisville and metro Cincinnati both share.

I wasn't suggesting adding Cincinnati in with Allegheny.

As I understood it, the concern was that Cadillac/Erie was too large.

Currently it has a strong industrial cast from Detroit and Cleveland. On the wast end it reasonably extends out to include Youngstown, Akron, even Canton. In the middle you have Toledo, and out into Michigan you have Flint, Tri Cities, and Lansing. Places like Battle Creek and Kalamazoo and Fort Wayne are a close enough fit. But western Ohio and Columbus don't. They're not industrial.

So I was suggesting making the grey district (Lincoln?) along the National Road from St. Louis through Indianapolis and Columbus.

But that would trim off much of Miami. So I would make Miami snake along the Ohio River, and maybe rename it Ohio (after the river). That would only scoop some of the western part off Allegheny.

[jimrtex]

Major Interstate Highways in Kennebec:
I-81: 53.3 mi
I-87: 133.4 mi
I-89: 191.1 mi
I-90: 24.5 mi
I-91: 177.4 mi
I-93: 118.8 mi
I-95: 303.2 mi

Where is the capital?