The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern portion of the Eastern United States. It comprises at least a core of states on the lower East Coast of the United States and eastern Gulf Coast. Expansively, it reaches as far north as West Virginia and Maryland (bordered to north by the Ohio River and Mason–Dixon line), and stretches as far west as Arkansas and Louisiana. There is no official U.S. government definition of the region, though various agencies and departments use different definitions. Geography The U.S. Geological Survey considers the Southeast region to be the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, plus Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. There is no official Census Bureau definition of the southeastern United States. They instead divide a larger region which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and West Virginia, designated as "the South," into three separate subregions, none of which are conventionally considered to define the Southeast. The nonprofit American Association of Geographers defines the Southeastern United States as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The OSBO (Organization Supporting Business Owners) uses the same states, but includes Arkansas and Louisiana. The states of Delaware and Missouri, along with the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C., are also sometimes added in definitions of the term. History The history of human presence in the Southeast extends to before the dawn of civilization, to about 11,000 BC or 13,000 years ago. The earliest artifacts were from the Clovis culture. Before the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans of the Woodland period occupied the region for several hundred years. The first Europeans to arrive in the region were conquistadors of the Spanish Empire. In 1541, Hernando de Soto journeyed through the southeast and crossed the Mississippi River. The region would host the first permanent European settlement in North America, with the Kingdom of England establishing Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. During Colonial America, the southeast states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia were among the Thirteen Colonies who helped form what would become the United States during the American Revolution. During the American