LOST States of America

"From the failed states of Jefferson, to the winner of Miss Absaroka(ab-SOHR-ka), these are 6 LOST States of America.

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6. Westsylvania | 1700s

Had it been recognized, Westsylvania would have been the 14th state in the newly formed United States. It would have taken chunks from Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania.

In the summer of 1776, settlers who were not happy with Pennsylvania and Virginia’s state leadership proclaimed their independence from both and went on to petition the Second Continental Congress to become, what would be known as, Westsylvania. The fact that there was major disputes about land between those 2 states, and a general lack of concern about Native American tribes, it seemed like a good idea.

5. Delmarva | 1776

The large Delmarva peninsula is split between Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. As the story goes, a lot of residents wanted to separate from these states and form a new one, which would be called Delmarva.

In reality, the fight was mainly between Delaware and Maryland. Both states wanted the peninsula all to themselves… kind of. There have been several instances of state senate resolutions proposing secession. They all failed.

In 1992, the Delmarva State Party was created, but it too failed to make Delmarva a reality.

4. Absaroka | 1939
What do parts of Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming have in common ? They all contemplated secession and statehood in 1939. Thus the name Absaroka. pronounced ab-SOHR-ka.

Wait, no. That makes no sense, how do you get Absaroka from these three states ? Well, there’s this cool mountain range near yellowstone bearing the same name, so maybe that was it. I doubt it had anything to do with the Crow Native American tribe who refer to themselves as Absaroka.

Anywhomst’ve, the exact origins of the movement to secede are hard to trace, in the 1930s a bunch of farmers, ranchers and small towners didn’t appreciate the lack of federal aid from the New Deal. Their pleas for help from the government and their want to be self reliant made them hard to reason with.

3. Jefferson | 1859, 1915, 1941

Alright, so this one is a bit of a mess. Let’s try and make sense of the State of Jefferson, spoiler alert, we might not be able to.

There is the Jefferson Territory, which was an unrecognized United States territory that existed for 16 months between october 1859 and february 1861. They even had a governor, and legislature who met up and divided the area into 12 counties with a total estimated population of 60,000 people, many of whom were gold rush workers.

Cool, so that's Jefferson State 1 out of the way.

Let’s move on to Jefferson State 2.
When the Republic of Texas, yeah that was a thing for a while as well, was annexed to the United States in 1845, a provision in the bill allowed for the creation of 4 new states from the territory. Jefferson State was the name of one of those proposed new states.

However, the State of California, isn’t so safe.
Welcome to Jefferson State number 3.

A state that would span the mostly rural areas of Northern California and Southern Oregon. This is what people think of when they hear the words “Jefferson State”.

The supporters of this movement have some serious facts backing them up. Considering that in 1855, the California State Assembly passed a plan to trisect, or split up into three parts, the state.

Then in 1859, the legislature and Governor of California approved the split of California on the 36th parallel north. The southern state would retain the name California, and the northern part would be known as the State of Colorado.

This is seriously just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to splitting up California.

Then in 1965 the California State Senate voted to divide California into two states, but the bill died in the State Assembly.

In 1992, a State Assembly bill to allow a referendum on splitting the state passed, but it died in the State Senate.

If only the State Senate in 1965 and the State Assembly of 1992 were reversed, we might have a very different map of the Western coastline.

This brings us to the 2000s. These are 6 different proposals of splitting up the state. What do you think ? If you had to choose, which way would you split up California ? I’m a fan of the 2013 proposal. Six Californias is better than 1, right ?

Since the 2016 election, there’s been talks of California seceding from the Union, but that would never happen, right ?

So there we go, those are the 3 different proposed Jefferson States.

2. Lincoln | 1865, 1869

1. Deseret | 1849"