r/geography • u/tycoon_irony Geography Enthusiast • 26d ago

Why aren't there any large cities in this area? Discussion

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11.0k Upvotes

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471

u/Jeb-o-shot 26d ago

Because there is no water and it gets very cold in winter.

41

u/thecordialsun 26d ago

>very cold

there's an old rhyme in North Dakota about why no lives in Minot, "Why not Minot? The Reason? It's Freezin!"

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

[deleted]

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u/Cowboy_BoomBap 26d ago

As a non-military person, you guys can trade orders??

1

u/dovaahkiin_snowwhite 26d ago

That rhyme scheme is what Eminem uses now lol

1

u/tempest-reach 26d ago

when the capital city of nd is smack in the middle of the state and its the 3rd less populous city. fargo is the most populated city and its literally on the border.

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

just checked the current weather there and it's 11, feels like -2 šŸ˜­ oh and the sun is still up

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u/Crstaltrip 25d ago

The meth doesnā€™t help minots case either

1

u/hillyardblake96 23d ago

Reminds me of the one I heard years ago..the reason north Dakota is so windy is because Montana sucks and Minnesota blows šŸ˜€

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u/Paul__miner 26d ago

I recently watched a video about this, and they specifically noted that the Rocky Mountains, due to their height and length, act as a barrier to precipitation.

20

u/wookiekitty 26d ago

I think we learned about it in 6th grade.

2

u/gatsby365 26d ago

Why didnā€™t they teach us these things in school?

More like why didnā€™t you do the homework in school?

1

u/smithoski 26d ago

Rain shadow is a great dog name

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u/BigTittyTriangle 26d ago

Sooo what Iā€™m hearing is we need to demolish the Rocky Mountains.

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u/Electrical-Bread5639 26d ago

Err, just a little off the top

3

u/WeekendQuant 26d ago

Every mile there's standing water in South Dakota and there's a Missouri river. Yes very cold winters though.

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u/karmint1 26d ago

And sitting on a gigantic aquifer.

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u/twillie96 26d ago

Add on top of that that it's very remote from any place that does have good economic access and it's very clear why this has remained mostly remote.

1

u/PartyPay 26d ago

The Missouri River runs through this area, and is almost the volume of the Mississippi.

1

u/Jeb-o-shot 26d ago

And water flows downstream. So anything from there is going to New Orleans not the other way around.

1

u/PartyPay 26d ago

I guess I misunderstood your comment then, you're saying you waterways to travel to and from?

1

u/Jeb-o-shot 26d ago

Yes. This is place you come from, not go to.

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u/PMTittiesPlzAndThx 26d ago

The largest aquifer in the country is under this circle šŸ¤·šŸ»ā€ā™‚ļø great for farming, thatā€™s why thereā€™s not really any people because thereā€™s just millions of acres of farmland lol

1

u/cevaace 26d ago

Cold, haha.

1

u/Confident-Fish2805 26d ago

A ton of water in western Minnesota

1

u/LimpTeacher0 26d ago

You can literally see lakes/rivers so not sure where you got no water

1

u/jacksepiceye2 25d ago

No water??????? There's probably 5000 lakes just in the little part of Minnesota there

1

u/Jeb-o-shot 25d ago

Not enough for large populations.

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u/CharacterSchedule700 25d ago

No water is 99.999999999% of the issue. It hasn't had enough rainfall / watershed to support the crops and population until recent developments.

Now the cities are starting to grow, especially along the Rocky Mountains.

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u/BitterSnak3 25d ago

No water? That's what MN is made up of wtf do you mean? šŸ¤£šŸ˜…

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u/jkreuzig 26d ago

I fail to see how there could be no access to water. Some of the best farm land in the country is in that region.

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u/Clit420Eastwood 26d ago

I assume they were referring to major bodies of water, which are historically where the largest human settlements end up

1

u/AnimatorKris 26d ago

Missourri river isnā€™t small. There are also some large lakes there. I donā€™t think water is problem, but climate is.

9

u/NRC-QuirkyOrc 26d ago

Most of the Missouri River also isnā€™t navigable. The whole reason people live near large bodies of water is because itā€™s easy to pull food from it and because it makes transportation easy.

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u/GiantKrakenTentacle 26d ago

The Missouri River was navigable well into Montana before it was dammed.

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u/AnimatorKris 26d ago

I think main reason is fresh water for household use and farming. In our times rivers for transportation arenā€™t that important as they use to be. For example Sioux city doesnā€™t even do any river logistics despite having good conditions to do so.

6

u/ArcticTemper 26d ago

Yes but what large cities are being founded since water navigation ceased to be so important? Most big cities now were relatively big cities 100 years ago.

2

u/hadtwobutts 26d ago

I'm not trying to be sparky or go against your point but chinese ghost cities that are populated now

2

u/ArcticTemper 26d ago

Good shout didn't know about them

2

u/Fatbatman62 26d ago

Weā€™re talking about big cities here, which means things like transportation and shipping the big bodies of water and needed for most.

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u/SparkyDogPants 26d ago

The Missouri and Yellowstone are large bodies of water that flow through deserts

1

u/QuinceDaPence 26d ago

The two biggest lakes in there were impounded in the 1930s and 1950s. They aren't natural and weren't there at time of settling.

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u/theSchrodingerHat 26d ago

Water and precipitation are two different things.

Also, shallow groundwater is fucking terrible. It can grow crops and keep cattle alive, but no human being is happy with it.

Water is also helpful for transport of goods. Thereā€™s a reason the Mississippi valley is a huge swath of ridiculously important agriculture AND production of goods. Which in turn makes it highly populated from Minnesota to Louisiana.

5

u/neumastic 26d ago

Iā€™m guessing they didnā€™t just mean bodies of water but *navigable water. Both Minneapolis and Chicago can credit water-based shipping for their size.

1

u/jkreuzig 25d ago

Thanks for just not downvoting and at least giving a reasonable explanation.

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u/neumastic 24d ago

I actually upvoted it because I thought it was a reasonable question and at the least shouldnā€™t be negative

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u/Hu_ggetti 26d ago

They pump it from an aquifer that is almost depleted from not enough recharge