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What States Border the Central & Mountain Time Zones?

The idea of having standardized time was first introduced by astronomer William Lambert in 1809 when he recommended to Congress that there should be an establishment of time meridians. Lambert's suggestion was ignored. The idea was revisited again by Charles Dowd, who was co-principal of the Temple Grove Ladies Seminary in 1870. This effort was not ignored. He later revised his proposal in 1872, so that the first time zone would be centered on the 75th meridian west of Greenwich with the other zone being divided by 90, 105 and 120 degrees. Time zones were first used by U.S. and Canada railroads in 1883.

Mountain Standard Time
- Mountain Standard Time keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Greenwich Mean Time. It is two hours behind Eastern Standard, one hour behind Central Standard, and one hour ahead of Pacific Standard.
  
  The Mountain time zone consists of Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico and Texas.
  
  The states in the zone that border the Central time zone are: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.
Central Standard Time
- Central Standard Time keeps time by subtracting six hours from GMT. It is one hour behind Eastern Standard, one hour ahead of Mountain Time and two hours ahead of Pacific Standard.
  
  The Central time zone consists of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
  
  The states that border the Mountain Time Zone are: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
Mountain Time Zone Boundaries
- Although Arizona sits within the Mountain time zone, it does not observe Daylight Saving Time. The Navajo Nation in the northeastern part of the state does, however, observe Daylight Saving Time.
  
  Even though Idaho is part of the Mountain time zone, the northern part of the state belongs to Pacific Standard Time.
  
  Malheur County in Oregon is the only part of the state that is in the Mountain time zone.
  
  Western parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska are in the Mountain time zone. The eastern portions belong to the Central time zone.
  
  A small portion of western Texas is in the Mountain time zone. The rest of the state belongs to the Central time zone.
Central Time Zone Boundaries
- Indiana did not begin observing Daylight Saving Time until 2006. There are 80 eastern counties in the state that go by Eastern Standard Time while 12 western counties reside in the Central time zone.
  
  Western portions of both Kentucky and Tennessee fall under Central time. The remaining part is under Eastern Standard.
  
  A small portion of western Florida is in the Central time zone. The remainder of the state falls under EST.