{"id":270659,"date":"2026-08-23T11:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T11:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/270659\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T11:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T11:42:08","slug":"why-pennsylvanians-care-so-dang-much-about-regional-names-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/270659\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Pennsylvanians care so dang much about regional names, borders"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ask Pennsylvanians to name where in the state they hail from, and you\u2019ll get a range of responses.<\/p>\n

Linda McKee, a DuBois resident who grew up in Titusville, divides the commonwealth into six neat regions: northwest, north-central, northeast, southeast, south-central, and southwest. So for her, the answer is straightforward: She\u2019s originally from northwest Pennsylvania, and currently lives in north-central.<\/p>\n

She acknowledged that each sector has \u201cits own character,\u201d but likes her system for its utility: \u201cI guess it\u2019s mostly, for me, just being able to locate things quickly on a map,\u201d McKee said.<\/p>\n

For Erie resident Karyl Shaffer, specifying her home region helps explain who she is.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay, \u2018I\u2019m from the Alleghenies,\u2019 and other people all across the state are going to know what that means,\u201d Shaffer told PA Local. \u201cThey\u2019re gonna know that that means that I value certain things, that I grew up a certain way.\u201d She\u2019s from Windber, and identifies most closely with the Laurel Highlands.<\/p>\n

For many Pennsylvanians, regional identity runs deep. It manifests in all manner of ways, from which sports teams<\/a> people cheer for to what they eat<\/a> and where they buy gas<\/a>. You can even hear it in how some people talk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These identities also help shape how Pennsylvanians relate to each other, what they call areas of the state, and where they decide to put down roots, PA Local found in over a dozen interviews with residents.<\/p>\n

Shaffer has lived across the state, settling in Pottsville for several months, Pittsburgh for two years, and Harrisburg for three years. Living in the state capital in the late 1990s, she \u201cstarted to really, seriously become aware and think about the regional differences in Pennsylvania,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In Harrisburg, Shaffer felt like the odd woman out for having a camper and spending weekends in the woods. Her deep connection to nature, formed in Western Pennsylvania, didn\u2019t seem to be the norm out east.<\/p>\n

Claire Gawinowicz lives right outside Philadelphia\u2019s city limits, but grew up \u201cupstate,\u201d in Hazleton. She thinks it\u2019s important to draw regional distinctions because there\u2019s no unifying state identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t say, you know, \u2018I\u2019m a Pennsylvanian,\u2019 and everyone knows what you are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She observed this firsthand decades ago, when she moved to Philly in 1978. City life was very different from her more \u201cisolated,\u201d less urban experience growing up. Meanwhile, she found herself pushing back against \u201cmisperceptions\u201d from friends back home who thought she was living in \u201csome kind of a war zone,\u201d telling them that no, she didn\u2019t have to walk around with a gun.<\/p>\n

Taking trips to other locales, like the \u201cgorgeous\u201d Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, reinforced for Gawinowicz just how varied this state is: \u201cYou feel like you\u2019re in a completely different country, almost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regional differences and \u2018layering\u2019 identities<\/p>\n

How did different areas of Pennsylvania develop such varied identities in the first place?<\/p>\n

It largely begins with the environment, according to Allen Dieterich-Ward, a history professor and the director of Shippensburg University\u2019s graduate school.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven with all of our improvements in transportation and telecommunications, the underlying sort of ease by which you can move from place to place, or the sense of a shared natural and built environment, that\u2019s a real underpinning of a regional identity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s landscape shaped settlement patterns for both Native peoples and European colonists, with the Appalachian Mountains serving as a major barrier separating east from west, Dieterich-Ward explained. Over time, different ethnic groups put down roots in different areas, and distinct regional cultures developed.<\/p>\n

Transportation and industrial development also played a role in shaping regions, he added, with canals and railroads<\/a> linking communities\u2019 economies, and allowing easier movement between them.<\/p>\n

Each industry left a specific footprint, said Douglas Miller, site administrator at William Penn\u2019s former estate<\/a> and a self-described \u201cstudent of Pennsylvania history.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to lumber in north-central Pennsylvania, anthracite coal in NEPA, oil in the Venango County area, and steel in the Pittsburgh region as examples of businesses that have informed local identity.<\/p>\n

Regional character has a tendency to \u201cebb and flow\u201d with history, particularly as industries rise and decline in dominance, Dieterich-Ward said. New identities can also be \u201clayered\u201d on top of old ones.<\/p>\n

Steven Schnell, a cultural geography professor at Kutztown University, said he rarely hears his students talk about \u201cCoal Country\u201d when discussing the area of the state known for its anthracite deposits. Instead of that once common parlance, they tend to use \u201cNortheastern PA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still a part of the historic identity there, but it\u2019s not like any of the kids growing up there grew up in the mines, or even probably with parents in the mines at this point,\u201d Schnell said. \u201cThat seems to have maybe a little less resonance with people because it\u2019s not central to their experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having so many different regional identities under one state can have political implications, Dieterich-Ward noted. Pennsylvania is a \u201cpretty good stand-in for the nation as a whole\u201d because of it, he said.<\/p>\n

Since no one region\u2019s economic, political, or cultural interests overpowers the others, it can be \u201cmuch more difficult in Pennsylvania state politics to come to a consensus on things,\u201d he said \u2014 though that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderlying all of these different regional identities, as different as they can be, there is a notion \u2026 of a really, really strong sense of place,\u201d Dieterich-Ward said. \u201cAnd if you can mobilize and find sort of the Venn diagram of where those regional passions overlap with one another, you can come up with really good public policies, and we have done that in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in a name?<\/p>\n

Knowing how strong Pennsylvania\u2019s various identities are, defining regions should be easy, right?<\/p>\n

Not quite. There are tons of ways to slice up the state, and no single approach is definitive.<\/p>\n

Divide the state by its landforms<\/a>, and you\u2019ll end up with oddly-shaped regions, some with names you\u2019re unlikely to ever hear in common conversation. Group regions using the U.S. Census Bureau\u2019s statistical areas<\/a>, and 13 rural counties are completely left out. Rely on the materials the state provides to tourists<\/a>, which tout regions like the \u201cPennsylvania Wilds,\u201d \u201cDutch Country Roads,\u201d and \u201cPhiladelphia and Its Countryside,\u201d and you\u2019ll probably make people in the burbs scratch their heads and wonder why you\u2019re calling their subdivision the \u201ccountryside.\u201d<\/p>\n

I could go on, or you could just draw your own map. (No, seriously. Draw one and email it to me<\/a> \u2014 I\u2019d love to see it.)<\/p>\n

When PA Local went to the people<\/a> to learn what they say when asked where in Pennsylvania they\u2019re from, some of the hundreds of answers leaned into cultural or economic histories, deferring to names like the Slate Belt or the Capitol Region. Others relied on geography, namechecking the Central Susquehanna Valley or the Poconos. Some people kept things straightforward by naming their hometown, county, or a nearby city.<\/p>\n

Directional terms, like northwestern, central, or southeastern, were common, but boundaries lacked consensus \u2014 though some people seemed ready to pick a fight to defend their definition.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople \u2026 have very strong ideas about what their region is, what their identity is, and what is a part of it, and what isn\u2019t,\u201d said Schnell, the Kutztown professor. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting in part because it\u2019s a purely cultural kind of a definition. It\u2019s not like there\u2019s an objective truth to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the terms people use amount to what geographers call \u201cvernacular regions,\u201d which are \u201cperceptual\u201d areas that exist \u201cin people\u2019s heads,\u201d Schnell explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey sort of evolve over time as shorthand for a particular region, but it\u2019s not necessarily geographical,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s places that people perceive as sharing certain characteristics.\u201d He noted that these perceptions can be shaped by stereotypes or exclude newcomers.<\/p>\n

In conversations with PA Local, Pennsylvanians cited several different sources for the terminology they use to describe their home areas, including their families, local TV news, and names of regional organizations. McKee, the DuBois resident, named the North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission<\/a> \u2014 a nonprofit body that serves her county and five others \u2014 as a reference point.<\/p>\n

Boundaries used to define regions included mountain ranges, highways, tunnels, and specific towns. You know you\u2019re \u201cupstate\u201d once you\u2019ve passed through the Lehigh Tunnel heading north on the Turnpike, said Gawinowicz, the Hazleton native.<\/p>\n

In explaining their reasoning, people talked about places\u2019 geography, positions on a statewide map, culture, and general \u201ccharacter.\u201d<\/p>\n

But summing up that regional je ne sais quoi in just a few words is easier said than done. Chester County resident Graham Dellinger, who\u2019s traveled all over the state, said he recognizes the value in finding regional terms that \u201cconvey as much meaning as possible in the simplest way that is easily received and understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he tends to waffle when it comes to Lebanon County, where he grew up. He\u2019s heard terms like \u201cAmish Country,\u201d \u201cPennsyltucky,\u201d and \u201cCentral PA\u201d thrown around, but none seems quite right to him. So when people ask him where he grew up, he usually just says \u201cthe Lancaster\/Lebanon area,\u201d or \u201cnear Hershey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to be perfect,\u201d Dellinger said. \u201cIt\u2019s a complicated thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Complications and all, the \u201cdiversity\u201d of the state\u2019s many regions (however they may be named and bounded) can be something to celebrate, said Miller, the historic site administrator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always like to think of it as a plaid,\u201d he said of the state\u2019s cultural makeup. \u201cThere\u2019s warp and weave to it, and together it makes something really beautiful, but each of these have an individual thread.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the second installment in a series about Pennsylvania\u2019s regions. Find the first piece \u2014 a survey asking readers to define regional boundaries \u2014 here<\/a>. To make sure you don\u2019t miss future installments, subscribe to our PA Local newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[139,28,30,29,1478,432],"class_list":["post-270659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-spotlight-pa","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}