Why is Chicago in the mid-west?

Answer 1

New England, the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts had already been divided up, the Deep South had no use for them, the Rocky Mountain Area was hardly appropriate in view of the Illinois terrain and it was deemed and insult to Botany to refer to it as a part of the West or American Southwest when their residents had little or no interest in Cacti, mesquite and sagebrush. They were dead set on corn like the folks in Iowa.

The Powers that existed at the time may have considered calling it a part of the Great Lakes region, but Texas have had a copyright on Great and Minnesota on Lakes and 10,000 Lakes, ponds and puddles. Consideration may have been given to adding it to Utah, but events in Nauvoo closed the door on that idea.

It became a political decision and like most of those, it was compromise that pleased few, met only limited serious objection and debate and was endorsed by the War Department who wrongly believed that it was an obscure salute or endorsement of the Navy Midshipmen and for the Army's West-Point.

Or just perhaps because:

It is a part of the geographic mid-west of the United States. It is also called a part of the Corn Belt and the Rust Belt. Chicago is the Magnifcent City, the Big Shoulder City and a City that refused to die

Answer 2

Yes. Chicago is in the northeastern corner of Illinois, on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Answer 3

Yes.