Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It

(Hardback)

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Description

Everyone knows the fifty winners-but what about the hundreds of other statehood proposals that never worked out Lost States is a tribute to such great unrealized states as West Florida, South California, Half-Breed Tracts, Rough and Ready, and others. History buffs will be entertained and enlightened by these bizarre-but-true stories- Frontier legend Daniel Boone once proposed a state of Transylvania on the borders of Indiana and Illinois. (His plan was resurrected a few years later with the new name of Kentucky.) Residents of bucolic South Jersey wanted to secede from their "filthy" north Jersey neighbors and form their own union. The Gold Rush territory of Nataqua could have made a fine state . . . but since no women were willing to live there, they had to settle for being part of California. Accompanying the stories are beautiful full-color original maps detailing how these states' boundaries might have looked, along with images of real-life artifacts and ephemera. Lost States is a quirky reference book for history buffs, geography geeks, and anyone who enjoys lush, fascinating cartography.

Reviews

We all know the 50 states, but how much do you know about the hundreds of statehood proposals that never came to pass These fascinating maps of states that might have been are from Michael J. Trinkleins Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It.
Country Magazine

Fascinating, funny book.
The New Yorker, Book Bench

This book is geared to the general reader and has a larger format that encourages perusal. It is recommended for history, geography, and general trivia buffs.
Library Journal

Amusing and lavishly illustrated book.
Christian Science Monitor

Complete with maps, Lost States is an interesting travel guide to the world of what-if history.
McClatchy Newspapers

"Trinklein is hilarious in his own right. I laughed out loud before I even got to the books main content ... it [covers] more states-that-never-were than any other source I've seen.
Jenny Bristol, GeekDad.com

Author Bio

Michael J. Trinklein wrote and produced the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary Pioneers of Television (2008), as well as The Gold Rush (1998) and The Oregon Trail (1993). His work has been consistently praised in the national media, including USA Today, Washington Post, Parade, Chicago Tribune, and the New York Times. He lives in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.