In its issue of 22 April 1996, the New Yorker Magazine published a parody map of Montana, by cartoonist Roz Chast. The state ranks 4th in surface (after Alaska, California and Texas), but 44th in population, giving it the 3rd lowest population density (before Wyoming and Alaska). This desolation, coupled with its great natural beauty, endowed Montana with several nicknames, such as the ‘Treasure State’, the ‘Land of Shining Mountains’ and ‘Big Sky Country’. Most interesting, because of its ambivalence, is the ‘Last Best Place’.
This reflects on Montana’s spectacular Rocky Mountain landscapes, but also could be interpreted as meaning that the 1 million or so Montanans see the outside world as the Big Bad Wolf. Which is one of the insinuations of this not over-friendly big-city view of rural Montana – the title is decidedly sarcastic. Montana is portrayed as a quilt of mini-states run by disgruntled marginals:
- Obsessed environmentalists
- Obsessed anti-environmentalists
- UFO buffs
- Militia groups
- Organised tax-dodgers
- Mad bombers
- Right-wing religious fanatics
- Macho writers, their hippie wives and their hippie children
- Hollywood pseudo-cowboys in need of privacy, open air, and a full-time personal staff of forty
I don’t really know enough about Montana to say whether there is any truth in this, but I guess the asinine tone of the labels reflects the prejudices of the ‘liberal, intellectual cosmopolitan coastal elite’ at least as much as it indicates those of the alleged fringe groups portrayed here – if not more.
This map was suggested to me by Wil Grewe-Mullins and is found here on Pruned, a blog on landscape architecture and related fields. A few people there commented on the veracity of the stereotyping in this map, which makes me wonder whether the New Yorker cartoon didn’t get it just about right:
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“The pseudo-cowboys should be down by Bozeman and the environmentalists should be by Missoula.”
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“I think I-5 goes right thru ‘anti-environmentalists’ and ‘organized tax dodgers’ – and I can attest to the truth of it! Stopping for gas in anything other than an old truck starts to get scary after a while.”
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“I would say the label ‘Hollywood pseudo-cowboys’ is true for the area around Kalispell (say the eastern half of that section) and I’d label the west part asbestos country: When I grew up, it was in the anti-environmental group. Bumper stickers of ‘Save a logger, eat a spotted owl’ were common. Right-wing religious fanatics can be found anywhere.”
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Mr. Chazt is either from Montana or has family there. Because, otherwise, why would the state merit attention? I could probably carve the same map out of Washington or Tennessee if I tried. I’m guessing those comments are from native Montanans, chuckling in part because someone out of state has given their part of the country some recognition.
(By the way, from what I’ve seen of Montana, there really needs to be a subset for blue collar mining towns. I’m willing to bet there are more miners than environmentalists and hippies put together.)
Comment by El Santo — December 4, 2007 @ 10:15 pm
I’d love to see one of these for my home state–Washington..
Comment by Lukobe — December 5, 2007 @ 12:03 am
I may be wrong, but I always thought that Roz Chast was a woman, not “Mr Chazt” . . .
Comment by Gerald Higgins — December 5, 2007 @ 12:36 am
Here’s a similar one for Oregon with a lot more analysis.
http://www.oregonlive.com/special/ninestates/
Comment by Chris — December 5, 2007 @ 1:07 am
I-90 goes through Montana, not I-5!
I think Chast is/was aware of rich New Yorkers’ (and others) propensity to purchase cheap, undeveloped real estate in the West.
Comment by esseffen — December 5, 2007 @ 1:34 am
I like this map, although I know fully well the labels are just silly stereotypes and even faintly mean-spirited.
If nothing else, it shows nicely why you can’t easily label the residents of whole states with the same brush. In American politics, Montana usually votes for Republican Presidential candidates, but Democratic Senate candidates do well here. Why? I would guess Democratic candidates win the “obsessed environmentalists”, “Hollywood pseudo-cowboys”, and “hippie wives and children”. Republicans get the votes of the “obsessed anti-environmentalists”, “militia groups”, “right-wing religious fanatics”, and “organized tax dodgers”. Politically speaking, statewide races would likely be decided by the “macho writers”, “U.F.O. buffs”, and “mad bombers”.
Ask a political scientist for more information.
Comment by Darrel Jones — December 5, 2007 @ 2:55 am
I-15 also goes through Montana, through the anti-environmentalists region, where also lies Bozeman’s Montana State University and its decision to stop its recycling program earlier this years. The map makes sense then!
Comment by Michael Barton — December 5, 2007 @ 3:32 am
A few summers back I was driving cross country with a friend of mine and my wife’s cat in a Honda Civic. We must have been somewhere in the Right-wing Religious Fanatics region because when we got pulled over for doing almost twenty over, the trooper didn’t seem to believed that we were, as he put it “just friends”. Maybe the cat gave it away I don’t know. I’ve never been afraid of a law enforcement officer before, until that moment.
Comment by ubiquitously — December 5, 2007 @ 6:25 am
Very interesting, and yes, quite humorous. Thank you.
Roldan
http://www.on-common-ground.com
Comment by roldanfsmith — December 5, 2007 @ 6:29 am
Congratulations on the witty website!
I’ve never given much thought to going to Montana, but now I can navigate;-)
Comment by januaries — December 5, 2007 @ 8:52 am
the asinine tone of the labels reflects the prejudices of the ‘liberal, intellectual cosmopolitan coastal elite’
Consider the possibility that it is (or is also) making fun of such prejudices — as the Kalman/Meyerowitz “New Yorkistan” map does, with the gaze turned on NYC itself. I know the Steinberg map in your post #72 was so conceived, but over the years many have seized on it as “look how parochial those New Yorkers are.”
Humor is funny stuff. Lack of it is sometimes pretty funny, too.
Comment by Monte Davis — December 5, 2007 @ 1:53 pm
Hi everyone!
Well, if we deal with the intimacies of almost any area, we can find schisms and unity and maybe Truth.
In looking at the news, over the decades, I’d say the Montana map above seems to encompass the proper groups — no idea about accuracy of geographical placement, though.
As far as the Oregonian article, in the reader’s link above, I’d say it is quite accurate, and worth the read to try to apply it to wherever you live.
The Oregonian highlights that it takes real effort to build “bridges” and “communicate” with each other. If Oregon, with its small population and ‘citizen’ legislature* can’t do it, then everyone has to go back to the drawing-board and re-double the effort.
Oregon is a valuable working Lab for the social-economic issues faced by most communities elsewhere, but which have more “career” politicians, who may not be interested in Answers. So, Oregon’s independent spirit may yet provide answers that can be applied elsewhere. It has led the way in making tough environmental choices, supporting alternative energy-transition and making the super-tough decisions on inclusive-health care for the most number of citizens it can and term limits for its legislators.
I think it would be worthwhile to make a map like this one for wherever you live, and then try to see how meaningful “connections” can start being made.
Humans sure are complex, but the basics all of us want are unifying and simple. Maybe that’s the place to start – Common Ground — a map made of THAT would be the worthy goal!
Best to all — Em
PS Please visit me at my blog:
http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
“Everyone knows someone who needs this information!” (TM)
* Oreon’s legislature meets for only part of the year and when the Governor calls it to extra-sessions. It has a high number (at times a majority) of people who hold down regular jobs or who own businesses and come to Salem, to serve, as needed. Unfortunately, in recent years, the group needs to work less along Party lines and more for Oregon’s best interest. There’s plenty of independent spirit that could be truly awesome if properly harnessed.
Comment by em — December 5, 2007 @ 2:46 pm
[...] December 5, 2007 by tekel I wonder which tribe the Shauns I know belong to? [...]
Pingback by Everyone I Know From Montana Is Named Shaun « tekel — December 5, 2007 @ 2:52 pm
The map is hilarious but of course, you cannot categorize Montanans. I should know. I grew up there. My mother and brother and a bunch of my other relatives live there. My son went to college there. In any single individual, you will find many of these attributes. My nearly 80 year old Mom is a quintessential 3rd generation Montanan. She has plenty of money but doesn’t spend it; refuses to buy a clothes dryer; gardens and shovels her own snow; still drives on icy roads; and she is ultra liberal when it comes to politics. My son is a liberal who took his gun to college where they had gun lockers in the dorms. My nephew is an artist–a potter–but he hunts for cougars, bears, deer and elk. That is Montana.
Comment by janet — December 5, 2007 @ 4:19 pm
I just found your blog and I wanted to let you know how very interesting I found it. I am an artist in Savannah, GA creating works around mapping. I love maps, always have. For some time now I have been stuck as to what exactly my artwork of maps would be specifically about and have started trying to think about different kinds of maps. Your research has been helpful in getting my brainstorming going.
Thank you.
Comment by hascott — December 5, 2007 @ 5:06 pm
I’m from Brazil…
Very Good you blog…
Comment by Letras de Músicas — December 5, 2007 @ 8:01 pm
[...] Strange Maps has a map called Montana: The gorgeous mosaic: [...]
Pingback by A different map of Montana « The GeoChristian — December 5, 2007 @ 8:55 pm
Among Montanans, the more interesting division is between Eastern and Western Montana. The state’s largest paper ran a story pondering where the dividing line fell and was flooded with responses.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/newdex.php?display=rednews/2005/05/09/build/state/32-where-is-emt.inc
http://www.billingsgazette.com/newdex.php?display=rednews/2005/05/15/build/local/40-kemmick.inc
They had a series of maps illustrating popular divisions, but that’s gone missing. You might be able to email Ed at the Gazette. He’d probably be willing to dig it up for you so you could feature it here. ekemmick@billingsgazette.com
The original and now deal URL is:
http://www.billingsgazette.com/elements/EASTWEST.pdf
Comment by Leif Wickland — December 6, 2007 @ 2:26 am
Just a quick quibble: the phrase “Last Best Place” is not intended to express ambivalence; it’s a reference to Lincoln’s 2nd annual address to Congress, where he called America that:
“In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth.”
source: http://www.topicsites.com/abraham-lincoln/quotes.htm
Comment by Jim Moskowitz — December 6, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
[...] Montana, ,the gorgeous Mosaic [...]
Pingback by Good to Go Pile . . . « Trading for the Masses — December 6, 2007 @ 4:04 pm
As a Montanan for the first 18 years of my life (a Chicagoan for the last 32) I was a bit bewildered by seeing the “mad bomber” bit up in the northeast corner and the “militia groups” bit in western Montana. Lincoln, Montana, where the Unibomber lived, is in central Montana. Missoula is in the far western portion, and would be the haven of not of gun nuts but rather of Environmentalists. As for right-wing religious fanatics… I knew a few growing up, but more than most western states that sort of thing in Montana didn’t go over well to my recollection. And what in the world is the area dedicated to “writers and their hippie wives” all about? Montana’s most well-known western writer, A. B. Guthrie, didn’t fit that bill if I recall right. I can’t think of who else is being referenced, writer-wise… as for the Bozeman area being better suited (as one other poster suggested) to the Hollywood people, that may be true. But the Flathead Lake area would be a likely Hollywood target as well, so it is possible that part of the map is — in our collectively silly sense here — “accurate.” I am sure my additions here will be helpful for those visiting my home state. And on a serious note, I would plug my little hometown, Fort Benton, which is 40 miles from Great Falls in north-central Montana and a wonderful historic, scenic place.
Comment by Jon Trott — December 7, 2007 @ 12:09 am
“Macho writers” belong where “militia groups” or maybe “obsessed anti-environmentalists. Roz Chast is hilarious, though.
Comment by Fnarf — December 7, 2007 @ 7:09 am
[...] commented (click here) on a map of Montana printed by The New Yorker Magazine. (I got the map from Strange Maps). Those Easterners know that Montana has everything from militia groups to radical [...]
Pingback by A Montana Native’s Perception of New York City « The GeoChristian — December 7, 2007 @ 8:54 pm
As a Montana native, I don’t agree with all of the boundaries, but sad to say this map is fairly accurate in the categories.
Comment by Kalispell native — December 8, 2007 @ 6:24 pm
[...] comments on the Strange Maps website are interesting, too, with several people noting that the boundaries of the map are not quite [...]
Pingback by Montana Map : Big Sky Blog — December 10, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
Small quibble – you say “Montana is 4th in surface (after Alaska, California and Texas)” which implies that California is 2nd in size, with Texas as 3rd, when in fact the opposite is true. Texas is largest of the lower 48, a fact that native Texans (such as myself) have drilled into us since birth.
Comment by Lollee — December 11, 2007 @ 12:37 pm
I live currently in montana but I’m a foreigner. Maybe in 10 years things have changed but even if all those things are still present in the state, I feel that everything should be in a different place.
Maybe he just wanted to place the different groups in montana and randomly assigned them to geographical locations
Comment by Andres — December 11, 2007 @ 5:43 pm
It’s funny how thoroughly everyone has picked apart this lighthearted joke.
Now it’s my turn! The militia groups should be a long strip along the Canadian border. Turns out there’s guys in camo with assault rifles just itchin’ to pick off a Canadian trying to bring you guys some better weed. It’s criminal, I say (the so-called Minute-men, that is).
Comment by turvyc — December 11, 2007 @ 8:22 pm
Don’t know if Chast has a connection to Montana or not, but the reason the map appeared when it did was simple enough: Ted Kaczynski a.k.a. the Unabomber has just been arrested a couple of weeks earlier at his secluded cabin near Lincoln, Montana.
Comment by roop — December 12, 2007 @ 5:04 am
It is true I grew up in Montana and now I find myself in the Manhattan. Not only was it fun to see the map, but the comments were as or more entertaining. I grew up in the Kalispell area, which is where the supposed Hollywood Cowboys are said to reside. The diversity is rich the Treasure State. And how could it not be, given the land mass. Consider throwing several states in the Northeast together and I suspect the differences would be even greater. Boundaries are a funny thing.
Comment by montanatomanhattan — December 16, 2007 @ 5:31 am
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Pingback by Montana, The Gorgeous Mosaic Map « Blog, I am your father — March 12, 2008 @ 10:23 pm
Your mapblog awesome!)) Funny pictures!
Comment by Moldova map — September 13, 2008 @ 3:00 pm
thank you
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 3:17 am
thanks for this map
good
luck
..
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 8:44 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 6:25 am
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 7:22 am