For people of the United States, there is interest in the stories of how those 50 states became officially part of the United States. There are also a lot of interesting stories about regions that came close to becoming states but didn’t quite make it for whatever reason. Join us now as we look at these Top 5 areas that nearly became a state in the United States.
Long Island
There have been a few attempts to grant full statehood to New York’s most famous island. The idea was first bantered around in the 1890s with the biggest gripe of Long Islanders being that it was not getting money back that it earned. It was argued that other New York-based senators would use the money Long Island earned for their own part of the state. Long Island is actually bigger than some of the actual states in the country like Rhode Island. Long Island is nearly the size of Deleware. However in both the 1890’s idea or its 1990’s, the idea never got to full statehood. It is thought that the rest of New York wouldn’t go for the idea and want to keep Long Island as part of New York.
Transylvania
Yes, there was an American attempt to create an actual state named Transylvania. Starting around 1775, right before the United States declared its independence from England, there was an attempt to create a colony called Transylvania. Not to take after the European region by that name but it took its name from the Transylvania company. Its leader, land speculator Richard Henderson got a bunch of his own investors to pull their money together and buy a large chunk of land from the Cherokee Indian tribe. Located around Tennessee, Kentucky, and parts of surrounding states, he hoped to turn the land into its own state. Daniel Boone was even part of the deal.
A group representing the new territory of Transylvania was set to go to the Continental Congress, but didn’t care to recognize the territory. With that reaction from the establishing government, the idea pretty much died right there.
Texlahoma
This was a huge chunk of land that took the upper bits of Texas and the panhandle of Oklahoma and tried to merge them into one state during the early part of the 20th century. The purpose of this new state? To build better roads for the area! It is said that the idea was first created by John Nance Garner IV, the U.S.’s Vice President at the time. He was also known for getting behind unusual causes. His idea was not picked up and the state was not made. His reason for statehood was not a popular one at the government level. It makes you wonder why the Vice President of the United States wanted an official state made just to have better roads to drive on?
Lost Dakota
Lost Dakota was a bit of land where the territories of North and South Dakota along with Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming were carved out. Around the 1860’s people began to notice that this bit of land outside were these territories was left over. No one was claiming they wanted the area of about 11 square miles. It was described as a useless wooded area where buffalo and bear lived and had nothing much else including people living there or roads to travel upon. In 1873 is was annexed and made officially part of Montana. Its existence was blamed on errors of map-making and people not noticing the extra bit of land when the borders of the different territories were drawn up.
Sequoyah
The state of Sequoyah was first proposed in 1905 by representatives from the “Five Civilized Tribes”, Native Americans of the region who wanted much of eastern Oklahoma made into a state so that Native Americans retained control of the area. It would be held under the Native American government and constitution. This was created by the “Five Civilized Tribes” because the proposed date set by congress for the end of tribunal governments and communal lands was getting closer. The act of statehood was seen as a way for Native Americans of the area to retain some sort of control and still have of say in how things were done. The idea failed with President Teddy Roosevelt pitching that the proposed area would be merged with Oklahoma Territory Government and that they would vote as a single unit. Eventually, all parties voted for Oklahoma to become the 46th state of the Union in 1907.
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