module 4 Unit The Central and the Southern States BEFORE READING Do the following activities. a. Look at the map on page 51. Name some of the central and southern states. Give any information you may know about these areas. b. Discuss with your classmates whether you think divisions like these are purely geographical or if they have other bases as well (and if so, what these bases could be). The Central States The Central States (or the Midwest) include the ones bordering the Ohio River, those grouped around the Great Lakes and those between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Many of these states lie in Tornado Alley , an area where tornadoes are frequent in summer and autumn Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri in particular. In general, the Central States are rural, agricultural areas, but manufacturing is now also important in developed urban areas. Ohio, whose agricultural land dropped from 80% to 65% between 1940 and 1995, was a leader in aviation development: Orville and Wilbur Wright, who made the first airplane flight in 1903, came from Dayton, Ohio. Moon-landing astronauts John Glenn and Neil Armstrong are Ohioans and director/producer Steven Spielberg was born there. Ohio s neighbor state, Indiana, is a strong steel and factory machinery manufacturing center but is more usually associated with the fictitious archaeologist of the Indiana Jones films. The Great Lakes states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota have rich mineral deposits and good farmland; Wisconsin is known as the Cheese State . Michigan was the birthplace of the controversial and constantly image-changing pop singer/actress/children s book writer Madonna. The state of Iowa is third in the nation s agricultural production; its quiet, largelyunchanged rural life can be seen in the 1992 novel and 1995 film The Bridges of Madison County . Just south of Iowa lies Missouri, where the Missouri River joins the Mississippi. During the western expansion of the 1800s, Missouri became the gateway to the West because the overland migration trails (Oregon, Santa Fe, California) all started here. Missouri and Iowa share their eastern border with Illinois, historically important because of Abraham Lincoln, U.S. president during the War of Secession (1861-1865 ) more commonly known as the Civil War. Most Central States were abolitionist (against slavery) and often helped escaped slaves. Chicago lakeshore. The cities of the Central States The most important city is Chicago, Illinois, at the southern tip of Lake Michigan. The U.S. s third largest city, and also an important port, Chicago is a city of mixed ethnicity: over 40% white, about 35% black, about 15% Hispanic, plus about 10% Asian, Native American and others. It can claim the world s first skyscraper (the Chicago School of Architecture, 1885) and one of today s tallest buildings (the 110story Sears Tower). It can also claim to be the home oft he first Afro-American President Barack Obama, who practised law here before becoming a Senator for the State of Illinois. On the dark side, this city was also the prime example of organized crime and gang warfare during the Prohibition era of 1919-33, with gangsters like Al Capone and Bugs Moran competing for control.