Look out the window of a Boeing 737 at 35,000 feet. You’ll see it. A massive, geometric patchwork of greens, browns, and golden hues that seems to stretch into infinity. Most people call this the "flyover" country. It’s a term that usually feels a little condescending, honestly. People sitting in New York or San Francisco look down and see a void between the coasts, a place to be endured during a six-hour cross-country haul. But here’s the thing about the fly over states: if you never actually land there, you're missing the literal heartbeat of the country.
The term itself is relatively new. It gained traction in the late 20th century as air travel became the standard for business and leisure. Before the 1950s, if you wanted to get from LA to Philly, you saw the ground. You ate at the diners. You stayed in the motels. Now? We just see clouds and the occasional grid of a Nebraska cornfield.
The Myth of the Monolith
We tend to group everything from Ohio to Idaho into one big, blurry bucket. That’s a mistake. The fly over states are not a monolith. You’ve got the Rust Belt grit of Cleveland and Detroit, the high-altitude plains of the Dakotas, and the deep, lush river valleys of Missouri.
Take a place like Des Moines, Iowa. Most people think "corn." And yeah, there is a lot of corn. But Des Moines is also a massive global hub for the insurance industry. It has a world-class arts center designed by Eliel Saarinen and I.M. Pei. If you just fly over, you miss the fact that the "boring" middle is actually where some of the most complex economic and cultural shifts in America are happening right now.
The demographics are shifting too. It's not just "farmers" anymore. Remote work—accelerated by the 2020 pandemic—pushed thousands of tech workers out of the Bay Area and into places like Bentonville, Arkansas, or Boise, Idaho. They brought their laptops, their coffee habits, and their venture capital with them. Suddenly, the "middle" looks a lot more like the "edges," but with cheaper rent and shorter commutes.
Why the "Boring" Label is Basically a Lie
Is it flat? Sometimes. Kansas is famously flatter than a pancake (an actual scientific study by geographers at Texas State University and Arizona State University confirmed this using digital elevation data). But flat doesn't mean empty.
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The Great Plains are one of the most productive agricultural regions on the planet. We're talking about the Ogallala Aquifer, a massive underground "sponge" that makes life out there possible. Without these fly over states, global food security basically collapses. It’s not just dirt; it’s infrastructure.
Where the Real Culture Is Hiding
If you want to see where American music actually comes from, you have to look at the "flyover" zones. You don't get the blues without the Mississippi Delta. You don't get Motown without Detroit. You don't get Prince without Minneapolis.
The coasts are great at distributing culture, but the middle is where it’s often brewed.
Think about the food. Sure, you can get a $30 artisanal pizza in Brooklyn. But have you had burnt ends in Kansas City? Or a Jucy Lucy in the Twin Cities? There’s a level of unpretentious mastery in the Midwest that you just don't find when people are trying too hard to be trendy. It’s about the soul of the dish, not the Instagram filter.
The Economic Reality of the Middle
Let's talk money. The cost of living in the fly over states is the primary reason the "brain drain" is starting to reverse. In 2023 and 2024, data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed a distinct trend: people are leaving high-cost coastal metros for the Sun Belt and the Midwest.
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- Columbus, Ohio, is becoming a literal "Silicon Heartland" thanks to a $20 billion Intel chip plant.
- The "Northwest Arkansas" region (Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers) is one of the fastest-growing economies in the country because of Walmart, Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt.
- Nebraska consistently has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation.
It turns out that when you can buy a four-bedroom house for the price of a studio apartment in Manhattan, the "flyover" looks a lot more like a "stay-over."
The Political Disconnect
We can’t talk about these states without mentioning the "red vs. blue" divide. This is where most of the tension comes from. The media often portrays the fly over states as a sea of red, but that's a massive oversimplification.
Look at a precinct map, not a state map. You’ll see blue dots in almost every major city in the Midwest and South. Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louisville—these are diverse, liberal-leaning urban centers surrounded by conservative rural areas. It’s a purple patchwork. When we dismiss these regions as "flyover," we ignore the millions of people living in these blue islands who are fighting for change, as well as the rural voters who feel their way of life is being ignored by coastal elites.
It’s a cycle of resentment. The "flyover" label reinforces the idea that the people in the middle don't matter as much as the people on the ends.
Surprising Spots You Should Actually Visit
If you're brave enough to book a flight that actually lands in the middle of the country, here are a few spots that might blow your mind.
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- The Badlands, South Dakota: It looks like another planet. Sharp spires, deep canyons, and a silence so heavy it feels like a physical thing.
- Ozark National Forest, Arkansas: Forget what you saw on the Netflix show. It’s all craggy bluffs, turquoise rivers, and some of the best hiking in the central U.S.
- The Driftless Area: This is a weird little pocket in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa that was missed by the last glaciers. It’s not flat. It’s all rolling hills and deep valleys that look more like Vermont than the Midwest.
Rethinking the "Flyover" Mentality
Honestly, the term says more about the person saying it than the place itself. It’s a sign of a closed mind. If you think there’s nothing to see between the Atlantic and the Pacific, you’re just not looking.
We’ve become a nation of "node-dwellers." We jump from one hub to another, skipping the connective tissue in between. But that tissue is where the resources come from. It’s where the energy is generated. It’s where the freight trains rumble through at 3 AM carrying everything you bought on Amazon.
Actionable Steps for the "Flyover" Curious
If you want to actually understand the fly over states, stop treating them as a backdrop for your next cross-country flight and start engaging with them as destinations.
- Take a "Middle-Out" Road Trip: Instead of driving up the PCH or down I-95, try the Great River Road. It follows the Mississippi River from Minnesota down to the Gulf. You’ll see the entire spectrum of American life.
- Support Local Creators: Follow artists, writers, and journalists who are actually from these places. Read the Star Tribune or the Kansas City Star. Get out of the national media bubble.
- Check the Tech Hubs: If you’re a founder or a freelancer, look into "Rise of the Rest" initiatives. There’s a lot of venture capital flowing into cities like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati right now.
- Eat Deeply: Don't go to the chains. Find the places where the parking lot is full of pickup trucks and minivans at 11:30 AM on a Tuesday. That's where the real story is.
The reality is that the "middle" is catching up. The infrastructure is modernizing, the economies are diversifying, and the culture is as vibrant as it’s ever been. The next time you're on a flight, look down. Those tiny lights aren't just points on a map. They're people, industries, and stories that are just as vital to the American experiment as anything happening on a coastal pier. Stop flying over. Start dropping in.