#this doesn't rule out a utah placement though. feel free to believe that utah enjoyers

[crowroboros]

Even with the confirmation of Echo's origins being placed in Vulture City, Arizona instead of Echo, Utah, where do your thoughts on the town's state lie? Is it in either or? both? a fictional state? I personally like to think Echo exists in the regal state of Utarizona

To be honest, I always found the idea that the town of Echo in Echo VN being placed in Utah simply based on the irl town of Echo also being placed in Utah to be a very weak piece of evidence. If there was more pointing to Utah, then I'd be fine with saying that Echo VN's town of the same name is set within that state.

However—as you can guess—I am certainly not fine with saying that. I have been an Arizona-placed Echo believer ever since I read the vn for the first time, as there is simply more pointing towards that being the case. To begin, the world of Echo VN is set in a very similar world to our own, with the layout and history being almost identical but with the main difference (besides anthropomorphic animals) being altered names: The United States of America is known as The United States of Columbia; Mexico is Sonora; The Netherlands is Batavia; Southland is Australia, etc. While this may suggest some large alternate history things going on, there isn't anything suggesting that these aren't simply just name changes. It is safer to assume that things happened in the Echo world identically to how they happened in our own—with the addition of Emma County and the town of Echo of course as this town is completely fictional.

With that said, one of the bigger pieces of evidence from Echo VN suggesting an Arizona placement over a placement in Utah is the Meseta Tribe and the town's proximity to their reservation. This Indigenous tribe is loosely based on the real life Native American Navajo people; With the Begay surname being derived directly from the Navajo word biye' (which I believe means "son" as in "the son of" but I do not speak the Navajo language so take my words with a grain of salt.) We know that Echo is located rather close to the Meseta Reservation as in Echo VN the town is close enough to drive to and back and not be considered a major trip. Furthermore, a fan-made map (pictured below) was later endorsed by McSkinny and Howly as an accurate layout of Echo and the surrounding area; To the point of even being used as the basis for a map that appears in The Smoke Room. If this is similar to the vision of the authors, then we can say that Echo is placed just to the west (and slightly south of the larger area) of the Meseta Tribe Reservation.

Now when comparing this to the real life Navajo Nation, while there are parts of it that are placed within the borders of Utah, an overwhelming majority can be found further south; If the layout and general size of the Meseta reservation is identical to that of the Navajo Nation—which again can be assumed through the general trend of "everything is the same but with furries and different names"— then for Echo to be placed to the west and slightly south of the reservation, it would be most definitely be located in northern/central Arizona.

Now, there are some places in Utah in which Echo could be placed for this to make sense. However I think it is much more likely to be to the west/southwest of the significantly larger area set in Arizona than the smaller, northern most bit of the reservation in Utah.

But maybe this doesn't mean anything. Could there be anything else suggesting an Arizona placement? Well, yes!

There are several statements about the ecology of the area surrounding Echo, including direct mentions of plants such as mesquite, saguaro cactus, and brittle-brush shrubs. Now all of these can be found across the southwestern US, however typically these plants don't overlap in natural habitat except for the central Arizona/New Mexico area. In fact, saguaro cactus simply does not grow in Utah at all. In a similar vein, Arches mentions the area being well known for its monsoon season. Which is centralized on Arizona and New Mexico; although again, Utah can and does get monsoons as well, though not as much as its southern neighbor. And for Echo to be in a location that is widely known for monsoons, I personally think it makes more sense for it to be in the hot-spot for such a thing rather than a location in which monsoons are a bit more rare.

Now, whether any of this means anything to you is out of my control; But I personally see all of this and think that Arizona makes the most sense, even without the Vulture City inspiration reveal and the writers saying that they like to think Arizona because "the desert looks nicer there".

What you believe is ultimately up to you; whether that be Arizona, Utah, a combined state of the two, or some curve-ball answer like New Mexico. But my own viewpoint is that Echo is in Arizona.