Making Peace with the Midwest

We may not have mountains, but we have the Wabash River

“Nowhere did the moon shine so bright as on the Wabash, nowhere was such contentment as lay over the Indiana fields when the frost was on the pumpkins and the fodder in the shock.” - Walter Havighurst “The Heartland” (1961)

There’s a certain Midwestern discontent that strikes the ambitious youth. They move off to California, New York, Colorado, or Florida looking for adventure and career. This is especially true of our small Midwestern towns. And it has been true since non-native folks first started settling the Midwest.

To them I say: you can always come back.

The Midwest needs Midwesterners to stick around (and come back.) There are beautiful small towns all around the Heartland full of cheap homes and good people. There are businesses to be opened and small farms to be planted.

There are rolling hills and grand river valleys. There are quiet fields and ancient groves of trees. There’s enough beauty, enough land, and enough work here.

Come back, if you can. And if you can’t, at least come visit sometime.