These Actual Proposed States Tried To Be In America, But Just Couldn’t Make The Cut.
As a country, we’ve pretty much decided that 50 is a pretty decent number in terms of states. It’s a nice even number, looks good on a flag and do we really want to force third graders to memorize another state?
Not many people know this, but the addition of new states was actually pretty common throughout the history of our country. To put things in perspective, Barack Obama is the only president who hasn’t witnessed a new state being included in our union in his lifetime (Hawaii joined the Union in 1959, he was born in 1961). Here are some states that ALMOST happened, but didn’t quite make the cut.
1.) The proposed state of Delmarva got its name because the small peninsula is technically the territory of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. Supporters of the movement hope that Maryland and Virginia will cede their lands and Delaware should rename itself ‘Delmarva’. As a Marylander myself I’m just wondering why we haven’t conquered Delaware as our own yet. They are weak and it would give us strategic access to the sea.
2.) Absaroka was the proposed state named after the Absaroka Range of the Rocky Mountains. It includes portions of Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota. In 1939 the territory got as far as having their own license plate and even their own Miss Absaroka beauty pageant.
3.) The upper peninsula of Michigan being its own state has been proposed many times, even as late as the 70’s when there were debates over tax drains. The agreed upon name for the state is “Superior” (after Lake Superior) which is a little like naming your state “Best State” isn’t it? Come on guys.
4.) ‘Deseret’ is a proposed state that looks annoyingly like its named simply ‘Desert’ which would actually make sense given its location. This was a territory sought after by the Mormons who eventually got Utah instead.
5.) This story is just awesome. Ever heard of the state called ‘Scott’? During the Civil War Scott County, Tennessee decided to not join the Confederacy so it seceded from its state to form its own. So I guess Scott and Tennessee both forgot about all that and it wasn’t until 1986 that Scott awkwardly rejoined its parent state. For some reason I picture the state of Scott to be a beautiful pasture of free roaming dudes named Scott, doing Scott-type things like, uh… waving? (I don’t think I know anyone named Scott actually, but that’s what I’d imagine they’d do.)
6.) The State of Sequoyah was proposed to be sort of a hodge-podge of Indian territories in Eastern Oklahoma. The tribes were to have their own Constitution.
7.) After the Revolutionary War America was very poor so they cooked up this weird policy of states giving up their westernmost land to the government so they could sell it to potential western landowners. Well one official decided sell parts of what was North Carolina to himself and then ceded it back to the government and gained a profit. Whatever, the people of the area got understandably angry about this and proposed their own state of Franklin, which is now Northeast Tennessee.
8.) There was once going to be a state in the U.S called Transylvania. This land wasn’t full of vampires though, just south eastern Kentuckians. This land was sold to the Transylvania Company in hopes that its owner would rule over it, but it turned out the Cherokees who sold it to him swindled him because that land was already owned by Virginia.
9.) It’s hard not to assume Lost Dakota is the setting of Lost World: Jurassic Park (just me then?), but it was actually formed because basically when they were slicing up the borders in that region, neither Montana, Idaho, Wyoming our either of the Dakotas really wanted it. The piece of land, which is about a third the size of Manhattan, is virtually untouched and undeveloped since no roads go through it and is plagued by bears. “Here Montana you have it!” said North Dakota and hastily threw it over to Montana where it remains.
The state of Scott sounds like the the plot of that one episode of Family Guy where Peter secedes his house from America. Remember that? Anywho, if you learned something at all here, give this a share on Facebook.
Read more: http://viralnova.com/proposed-states/
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