The Declarer (Floyd McWilliams' Blog)

Friday, June 27, 2003


Here's a great link from Hit and Run: Footnotes to History: The nations you didn't learn about in high school. Footnotes is James Erwin's collection of every small, temporary, and failed nation conceivable. For instance:


Jefferson- Northern California and southern Oregon have long been dissatisfied with their respective governments. This exasperation erupted over the failure of the government to provide funding for new roads. A number of border counties sent delegates to demand better treatment at a November, 1941 meeting in Yreka, California. The local board of county supervisors, urged on by the Chamber of Commerce, allocated funds to further the cause of independence and designated Yreka the temporary capital of the State of Jefferson. On December 4, Judge John Childs was elected governor of the new state. National opinion was favorable, but fate was not; three days later, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The inhabitants of Jefferson put aside their bid for the sake of national unity. All ended well; the government built a number of roads through the area to transport timber during the war.





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