State of Jefferson

Over the rich history of the United States, various successionist movements have come and gone (or not). In fact a few of my Texas friend actively look forward to the day when the Lone Star State goes it’s own way, but only after they get their first In-​N-​Out Burger franchise.
Up here in the far reaches of Northern California is the State of Jefferson, with Yreka as its Capital. It’s a beautiful drive and somewhere along I-​5, there’s actually a sign on top of a barn that announces your arrival. There is no border patrol, unless you count the Ag Inspection Station at Hornbrook.
The State of Jefferson was a dream, that Northern California and Southern Oregon shared, to succeed in creating a new state. The concept of the State of Jefferson started 1852 when a bill was introduced in the California State Legislature meeting at Vallejo. This bill died in committee and the proposal was never acted upon. After Oregon was incorporated as a state in 1859, miners in the area refused allegiance to either state government and declined to pay taxes. During the Civil War some settlers were interested in creating a northern haven for slavery, but fortunately this failed.
By 1941 the dream was sparked again when certain counties in California and Oregon decided that they were not being fairly represented by Sacramento and Salem. This was a region that earned a living off the lumber, fishing, and other harvesting businesses in the area and they felt the government was not distributing infrastructure funding equally to the area. In particular, poor road quality and lack of bridges made it difficult to earn a living in this remote area. They wanted to break away and from their own state to improve their lifestyles by governing themselves with their own laws.
And the Jefferson State of Mind lives on today…

«Jefferson is the state that never was and never will be but that has lived in men’s minds for a hundred years.» So quoth one resident from the region encompassing part of Southern Oregon and Northern California that locals call the State of Jefferson. If you have ever had occasion to traverse this largely unspoiled, sparsely populated, Heaven-​sent, beautiful geographical region, you will understand why residents proudly and defiantly describe themselves as the 51^st state in the Union.
The history of a movement to secede from the rest of the United States is well-​documented on the Web in State of Jefferson websites, Wikipedia (
), and has made its way into the collective consciousness of the local population enough to garner recognition by media outlets in the area. For instance, the region’s NPR affiliates are referred to as Jefferson Public Radio (
) and The Pioneer Press, an area newspaper published in Fort Jones, California, stakes its claim as «The official newspaper of the State of Jefferson».
The sheer beauty and remoteness of parts of this hypothetical state, exemplified by the view of the snow-​covered mountaintop of the extinct volcano Mt. Shasta, are enough to convince most skeptics that the State of Jefferson is its own special place that deserves a name of its own and is worth visiting at least once in one’s lifetime.