This page is part of the Atlas of Popular Culture in the Northeastern United States by John E. Harmon

Fig. 1 Businesses and Organizations with "North Country" in Their Names Source: Pro CD - 2nd quarter, 1997

The Region

The North Country stretches across the entire northern tier of the region.  The identity with this vernacular region is strong in New York, particularly within the Adirondack region but generally in a line north of Buffalo and the Mohawk Valley.   The regional identity is weaker in Vermont; the Burlington region showed only 13 uses of the name while the much smaller Plattsburgh, NY,  area across Lake Champlain had 21 uses.

It is  very strong again around the White Mountain region of New Hampshire.  There are relatively few uses of the name in less densely populated Maine.  There are the usual outliers that extend as far south as Atlantic City, NJ (North Country Natural Spring Water Limited).

Only one sequence of city directories (Watertown, NY) has been checked so far to determine when this term came into general use. The first use was found in 1930 there and growth was slow until the 1980s when as many as 19 businesses and organizations used "North Country" in their names. The name was probably in wide use before then, however. 

The name is used far beyond the Northeastern United States.  Internet references exist to many northern tier states, there is a North Country Real Estate in northern California.  There are many uses of the term in Minnesota, Michigan and Alaska in particular.  The term appears as well in many other states and provinces of Canada.   There is also a North Country Scenic trail under development  that links seven of these states from New York to  North Dakota.

The Regional Image

Vernacular regions usually carry an image with the name.  The image of the North Country is one of clean air, water and a general crispness to the climate and lifestyle.   One soap manufacturer trying to attach the qualities of the region to a product wrote:   "North Country is a state of mind. North Country stands for Pure, Honest, Clean and Wholesome.....  the same as our soaps" "The names of these bars call to mind the stillness of the deep, white, soft snow; the sparkling water and the heartfelt calmness of the land where it was born." (North Country Glycerin Soap 1999).

Frank Mosher, a resident of the North Country and Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, has written a book about the region and the people in it (Mosher 1997).  In an interview with Atlantic magazine (Bacon 1997)  he spoke of what made the region different:

Atlantic: "You describe the North Country as "a vast and little-known territory so distinct from the rest of the United States that it has a special name of its own." What -- aside from geography -- sets the North Country apart?"

Mosher: "One thing that sets it apart is the unforgiving climate -- by early September this year we'd already had a couple of severe frosts
in northern Vermont...What sets the area apart most is its people. Sometimes North Country people are perceived, even by those in their own states, as quaint and eccentric, even wrong-headed. A man I met in Maine told me, 'People in the state capital in Augusta think that their main obligation is to save us from ourselves.' The North Country certainly has its own share of outlaws and survivalists, but most of the people I met on my trip were very hardworking, serious, intelligent people who were trying somehow to make a living from the land, even though that's getting more difficult every day. Many of them were still doing traditional kinds of work that their ancestors had done, like farming, lumbering, ranching, and mining. It was this contact, this interdependence between the people of the North Country and the land, that seemed to me to set them apart."

While Mosher focuses on the people and their relationship to the land, the tourism industry has a different slant on what regional qualities will attract visitors.   Most descriptions center on the air ("Need to get away from the heat and the congestion? Come and for some North Country air!" [http://www.lopstick.com/rant.htm]), water and summer outdoor life.  While the year-round residents of the region understand and use its name, it really is the summer residents and visitors of the region that seem to be attracted by the name.  You find "North Country" in many businesses and organizations that clearly cater to permanent residents but the number of tourism related firms that have attached the regional locator to their business is quite large across the region. 

The Rest of the Compass

The persistence and strong identity of this region leads to questions about the other cardinal directions.

Table 1 - Use of Cardinal Directions in Vernacular Regional Names

Sources:

Bacon, K. 1997. Interview with Frank Mosher (1998) in Atlantic Bound. [http://www.theatlantic.com/atlantic/unbound/bookauth/hfmint.htm].   Accessed 7/20/99.
Mosher, H. 1997. North Country: A Personal Journey Through the Borderland. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
North Country Glycerin Soap. [1999]. [http://www.pclink.com/nocosoap/hfhb.htm] Maple Plain, MN.
Watertown, NY - Polk city directories.