AHC: The Great Lakes Region is the wealthiest region in the United States

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is how to make the states in the Great Lakes area the most populous and economically powerful region in the United States. When I say Great Lakes region, I mean specifically Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. How do these states get to the point where the region is considered to be superior to the West Coast and at least equal to the East Coast in drawing immigrants, young people, and producing innovation and cultural capital such as books, TV shows, and movies set in the region?

POD: No earlier than 1940.
Extra Points: Have the Great Lakes maintain their manufacturing base while also transitioning to a knowledge economy. In other words, make it so that the region is designing the industrial technologies they then build in their factories.
 
Cuban missile crisis goes hot.
The few Soviet weapons that get through take out NYC, DC, some other east coast cities, also LA, SF.
The weapons targeted at Chicago either fail to arrive or land in lake Michigan.

Chicago becomes the center and 'temporary' seat of the US government, with it's great rail and river connections.

Europe has been devastated, Japan has no export markets to bootstrap their economic growth.

The US remains the sole hyperpower, and between rebuilding the US, Europe, holding down the remains of the USSR, and no competition economically, the US manufacturing economy is going great guns.

Oh. And with Wall Street vapourised, Chicago becomes the financial center of the US, as well.
 
A earlier US-Canada free trade deal makes shipping across the lakes more valuable?

I'm wondering what the economic impact would be if zebra mussels never were introduced to the Great Lakes.
 
Or maybe Japan took over the Western U.S., but left ports in Alaska intact as part of the deal, forcing the US to transport goods through Canada to reach the Pacific?
 
Also, try to find a way that doesn't result in the destruction of any cities.

The big problem with what you're asking is the fact the earliest point you are giving us is 1940. I am not a fatalist, but port cities and areas tend to eclipse more inland areas, hence why the coasts are usually mroe prosperous than their inland counterparts. I said uusally and obviously it all depends on the continent and history. As such, trying to make it to where the Great Lakes edge out California is veyr difficult.

A more plausible idea I think would be to have the Great Lakes region be a third party for that. Being as viable an area as the Northeast Coast and the West Coast. One way would be to be among the first to embrace renewable energy sources and focus on manufacutring that. Recycling programs to recycle steel and other mineral goods like that would help. A second way would be for the digital revolution to occur there instead of in California. A third thing could be them providing tax incentives for television (it's doing pretty well for Georgia so far so somewhere like Great Lakes would also be able to do it.)

Though maybe also marijuanga gets legalized and trade of medical marijuana and other products is done through the Lake areas though this is mainly if it would not harm the environment.
 
Okay, try to find a POD after 1900. Any time after that is fine. I originally specified 1940s because the Great Lakes is the "Arsenal of Democracy" and so was enjoying a high water mark.
 
Okay, try to find a POD after 1900. Any time after that is fine. I originally specified 1940s because the Great Lakes is the "Arsenal of Democracy" and so was enjoying a high water mark.

Maybe rather than feeling to Hollywood, the camera people flee to the Great Lakes to escape the attempted monopoly stranglehold of Edison. Great Lakes become something of a new Hollywood or a counterpart if some still head to California.

Beyond that, I’m not sure though I’m sure you can do something with bigger events like the US not being involved in WWI and the Germans winning that.
 
Complete the Saint Lawrence Seaway a couple of decades earlier to allow ocean-going ships to sail into the Great Lakes.

OTL During WW2, the US Navy gave tons of hemp seeds to Mid-Western farmers. That hemp was desperately needed for cordage. Hemp plants still grow wild along farm roads in Illinois. Those hemp strains were great for cordage or cloth, but totally useless at a party.

WI Post-WW2, Mid-Western farmers continued growing hemp for cordage, but kept a small plot (of a more psychoactive strain) for "medicinal purposes?"

OTL Musically, hundreds of thousands of Mississippi Delta black farm labourers moved to factories along the Great Lakes. They brought Delta Blues tunes with them and developed a distinctive Chicago Blues style. Blues begat two children: Jazz and rock and roll.
 
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