Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made it
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 5/16/2013
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 5/16/2013 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I picked up this handsome hardcover from the bargain table at Barnes and Noble. I've enjoyed many of Quirk Books' publications, and this one looks like a nice mix of history and trivia - and as it includes the intended state/territory/country of Deseret, which features in the alternate-history novel Ghost of the Revelator, I couldn't resist it. (The dust jacket actually unfolds into a large-sized version of the cover map.)
I knew some of the stories here, but many were new to me, and it was fun to see the might-have-been "states" in context on the maps. Among my favorites: "Adelsverein", a proposed German colony in the middle of what is now Texas; it never caught on, but German immigrants to Texas did found New Braunfels, known to this day for a mail-order smoked-meat company. Then there was the proposal to make Cuba a state, one that makes a lot of geographical sense even if the politics would be... tricky. Deseret I've already mentioned; apparently the proposed area would have covered all of existing Utah, most of Nevada and Arizona, and big chunks of the surrounding states - including California, for a route to the coast.
Another surprising possible-annexation: apparently there was serious consideration at one point to making Iceland a state. That would have been the most far-flung state (though not the most far-flung US territory), and as I rather like Iceland I'm almost sorry they didn't manage it. Think what it would do for our medal chances in the Winter Olympics?
My folks live in eastern Texas now, and it seems that if things had gone differently they might be living in Jacinto; a bill to split Texas into smaller states was apparently discussed in the Senate in 1860, though it didn't get very far.
The story of Muskogee, at the crook of the Florida panhandle, is a fascinating one; the author thinks it'd make a dandy film, and I tend to agree. Anti-hero is kicked out of the US army, marries into a Native American tribe and becomes a leader, later on becomes a pirate - what more could one want? This was William Augustus Bowles, a wild child if there ever was one!
One entry deals with the Guano Islands Act, which allowed US citizens to claim as US territory any otherwise-unclaimed island that had guano deposits on it. [The great Guano Era was a real thing; for quite some time, it was the most effective fertilizer anywhere, worth long voyages to acquire.]
And there's a lot more, some amusing, some tragic, some just offbeat. Very interesting book!
I knew some of the stories here, but many were new to me, and it was fun to see the might-have-been "states" in context on the maps. Among my favorites: "Adelsverein", a proposed German colony in the middle of what is now Texas; it never caught on, but German immigrants to Texas did found New Braunfels, known to this day for a mail-order smoked-meat company. Then there was the proposal to make Cuba a state, one that makes a lot of geographical sense even if the politics would be... tricky. Deseret I've already mentioned; apparently the proposed area would have covered all of existing Utah, most of Nevada and Arizona, and big chunks of the surrounding states - including California, for a route to the coast.
Another surprising possible-annexation: apparently there was serious consideration at one point to making Iceland a state. That would have been the most far-flung state (though not the most far-flung US territory), and as I rather like Iceland I'm almost sorry they didn't manage it. Think what it would do for our medal chances in the Winter Olympics?
My folks live in eastern Texas now, and it seems that if things had gone differently they might be living in Jacinto; a bill to split Texas into smaller states was apparently discussed in the Senate in 1860, though it didn't get very far.
The story of Muskogee, at the crook of the Florida panhandle, is a fascinating one; the author thinks it'd make a dandy film, and I tend to agree. Anti-hero is kicked out of the US army, marries into a Native American tribe and becomes a leader, later on becomes a pirate - what more could one want? This was William Augustus Bowles, a wild child if there ever was one!
One entry deals with the Guano Islands Act, which allowed US citizens to claim as US territory any otherwise-unclaimed island that had guano deposits on it. [The great Guano Era was a real thing; for quite some time, it was the most effective fertilizer anywhere, worth long voyages to acquire.]
And there's a lot more, some amusing, some tragic, some just offbeat. Very interesting book!
This book's on its way to my folks in east Texas. Enjoy!
*** Released for the 2014 Oh the Places We Can Go challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2014 Oh the Places We Can Go challenge. ***
Journal Entry 3 by GoryDetails at Polk County Museum in Livingston, Texas USA on Monday, August 1, 2016
GoryDetails at Polk County Museum in Livingston, Texas USA on Monday, August 1, 2016
The folks are gone now, and I'm moving this book along. I left it outside Manny's Shrimp Boat restaurant in Livingston, where my folks used to love to go to dinner. Hope the finder enjoys the book!
