Believe it or not I live in Michigan not far from the heart of darkness (near Ann Arbor) but I grew up less than 20 miles from Hillsdale.
I don’t know much about that area, having only driven through MI. It doesn’t look that far from Grand Rapids, which is a center of Christian faith. Also, the whole of the rural Midwest is an area where traditional American culture survives, at least relative to some places.