The State of Jefferson

Images of America: California

by Bernita Tickner, Gail Fiorini-Jenner

The State of Jefferson was born in the hearts of pioneers who crossed craggy peaks and treacherous canyons to settle near the Oregon and California border. Isolated and feeling neglected by both state governments, they tried to create a new state as early as 1852. The persistent State of Jefferson movement finally received national attention, including articles in Time and Life magazines, and held a boisterous election of county officials in 1941, before being derailed by the onset and priorities of World War II. But solidarity and independence still run like underground springs in the border counties, where rugged individualism matches the often rugged terrain, and where highway signs, businesses, and even public radio stations proudly display the State of Jefferson name and flag.

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 27, 2006

Reviews

[Aaron Litt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neat pictures, but short on text. I know it is meant to be a part of a picture book series, but a few more words would have added a lot of meaning to the photos presented...

[Christopher Roth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many books in this series, this one is pretty much churned out, and is pretty light on text and heavy on photos, and indeed only a little bit of it is about the State of Jefferson movement itself; it's mainly just about the California-Oregon borderlands in general. But it does have some nuggets of information on Jefferson not found elsewhere. It also could have done more with the Modoc Wars, the most historically significant thing that ever happened in this small region, though there are gestures at multiethnic inclusiveness elsewhere.

[Elizabeth Weltin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another research book for the area I grew up in. This is a nice pictorial book with brief captions of interesting times and people of "The State of Jefferson"-the northernmost tip of California and the southernmost part of Oregon. It was cool to see photos of things I'd heard about but never gotten around to seeing or had no desire to dig through archives to look for old photos of.