This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE

This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE.

Only old timers remember the State of Jefferson issue. The voting in the recent election where local voters roundly defeated Measure 49 only to have the upstate voters of the Willamette Valley pass it anyway has again raised the issue of creating a State Of Jefferson.

I can remember of more recent memory that at one time the publisher of the Herald and News, Frank Jenkins wrote a great deal about creating such a state out of an area that would stretch from Coos Bay in the north to Redding in the South.

There is no question but what local citizens get irritated when the voters up north set up programs that govern much of what we can and can’t do with our resources here in Southern Oregon as well as Northern California.

The history of the State of Jefferson actually preceeded the establishment of the State of Oregon. An excellent history of the State of Jefferson was written by Jack Sutton back in 1965...some 42 years ago. The book was the result of the current thought about forming such a state.

Actually the first serious effort to establish such a state came with a bill introduced in the California state Legislature at Vallejo, California in 1852. At that time it was called a “State of Shasta.” Sutton wrote that the early settlers of the area were deeply impressed with the areas ability to sustain itself solely on its own resources, but were distressed by the high taxes, poor mail service and lack of military protection.

The State of Shasta died in legislative committee only because of the pressure of other business.

The following year, 1853 at the New State House at Benicia another attempt was made to create a State of Klamath. The Daily Alta California of San Francisco pleaded the cause saying “Southern Oregon and Northern California, embracing the range of country east of the coast and stretching from Cape Mendocino to the Umpqua presents a country of uniform character and is distinct from the rest of either California or Oregon.”

The article continued: “Let our local resources be developed by a government identified with our localaity; let us have a voice in the national councils where we can urge upon Congress our wants.”

In another edition the same newspaper suggested that Crescent City should be named the capitol of the new state of Klamath.

Yet another effort came In 1854. The Yreka Herald of December 30, 1853, issued a call for a mass meeting of Jefferson’s citizens at Jacksonville for “the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of organizing a new territory to be called Jackson, and to devise means to do the same.”

The second meeting was held in Jacksonville and they elected officers. They prepared resolutions opposing the formation of the State of Oregon with its present boundaries. The memorial was presented at the 33rd session of Congress by Joseph Lane, then Oregon’s territorial representative. He informed the group that he personally did not favor their resolution because it might delay his plans for the admission of Oregon as a State.

Also at this time the Indian conflicts began and the effort was lost in the ensuing struggles against various Indian tribes. It would be nine years later that Fort Klamath was authorized and began to take shape in Northern Klamath County.

While a later effort was made by some California counties to organize what they called a state of Jackson, it, too, met with failure.

That’s the history of the State of Jefferson. Obviously many local citizens feel that their voice in state affairs is not considered upstate and that virtually all state issues are settled in the Willamette Valley area. Obvious, also, that under present law it would be impossible to form such a state, but what a difference it might have made for this area had it been successful back there in the 1850s.

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE

Text Box:
This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE.

Only old timers remember the State of Jefferson issue.   The voting in the recent election where local voters roundly defeated Measure 49 only to have the upstate voters of the Willamette Valley pass it anyway has again raised the issue of creating a State Of Jefferson.

I can remember of more recent memory that at one time the publisher of the Herald and News, Frank Jenkins wrote a great deal about creating such a state out of an area that would stretch from Coos Bay in the north to Redding in the South.

There is no question but what local citizens get irritated when the voters up north set up programs that govern much of what we can and can’t do with our resources here in Southern Oregon as well as Northern California.

The history of the State of Jefferson actually preceeded the establishment of the State of Oregon.   An excellent history of the State of Jefferson was written by Jack Sutton back in 1965...some 42 years ago.   The book was the result of the current thought about forming such a state.

Actually the first serious effort to establish such a state came with a bill introduced in the California state Legislature at Vallejo, California in 1852. At that time it was called a “State of Shasta.”   Sutton wrote that the early settlers of the area were deeply impressed with the areas ability to sustain itself solely on its own resources, but were distressed by the high taxes, poor mail service and lack of military protection.
The State of Shasta died in legislative committee only because of the pressure of other business.
The following year, 1853 at the New State House at Benicia another attempt was made to create a State of Klamath. The Daily Alta California of San Francisco pleaded the cause saying “Southern Oregon and Northern California, embracing the range of country east of the coast and stretching from Cape Mendocino to the Umpqua presents a country of uniform character and is distinct from the rest of either California or Oregon.”

The article continued: “Let our local resources be developed by a government identified with our localaity; let us have a voice in the national councils where we can urge upon Congress our wants.”
In another edition the same newspaper suggested that Crescent City should be named the capitol of the new state of Klamath.

Yet another effort came In 1854. The Yreka Herald of December 30, 1853, issued a call for a mass meeting of Jefferson’s citizens at Jacksonville for “the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of organizing a new territory to be called Jackson, and to devise means to do the same.”

The second meeting was held in Jacksonville and they elected officers. They prepared resolutions opposing the formation of the State of Oregon with its present boundaries.   The memorial was presented at the 33rd session of Congress by Joseph Lane, then Oregon’s territorial representative. He informed the group that he personally did not favor their resolution because it might delay his plans for the admission of Oregon as a State.

Also at this time the Indian conflicts began and the effort was lost in the ensuing struggles against various Indian tribes.   It would be nine years later that Fort Klamath was authorized and began to take shape in Northern Klamath County.

While a later effort was made by some California counties to organize what they called a state of Jackson, it, too, met with failure.

That’s the history of the State of Jefferson. Obviously many local citizens feel that their voice in state affairs is not considered upstate and that virtually all state issues are settled in the Willamette Valley area. Obvious, also, that under present law it would be impossible to form such a state, but what a difference it might have made for this area had it been successful back there in the 1850s.

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE
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