Located in western Massachusetts, USA, Amherst and the surrounding Pioneer Valley is a haven for persons too politically fringe for California and for college graduates who can't quite bring themselves to enter the real world.

The density of fringe elements can be explained by the gravitational hypothesis: it has been suggested that the North American continental plate is in fact slightly tilted, so that anything loose or unstable eventually winds up in California. The Pioneer Valley is apparently deep enough to collect a non-trivial fraction of the California-bound.

It is perhaps telling that the area's most perenially successful sports team is the Amherst High School "ultimate frisbee" team (also, see the entry on Salamander Crossing).

The density of recalcitrant college graduates is attributable to the presence of four private colleges and a major state university. As a population, college students tend to be inherently loose and unstable, making the group particularly susceptible to the gravitational trapping effect.