Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 09:33:44 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: West Virginia
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

> StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL 04/04/02 09:34AM >>>
>	Yes, obscure history is very much fun!  The state of Lincoln
>(southern Texas) was another blacks only proposal and there have been at
>least three maintstream novels and three science fiction novels with =
blacks
>only states or countries within the borders of the United States.
>	There was also a proposal to move all the Jews in the world to =
upper
>New York State, which would certainly have altered the news from the =
Middle
>East.
>	The Upper Peninsula of Michigan proposed to become the state of
>Superior and the western panhandle of Nebraska proposed to secede and
>either
>become a separate state or join Wyoming.  Martha's Vinyard and Nantucket
>islands proposed to secede from Massachusetts at one time and the state =
of
>Colorado offered to annex them if they did.  There was a proposal to =
change
>the name of North Dakota to just Dakota because "North" sounded cold.  =
And
>there have been recurrent proposals to divide California, most recently =
into
>3 states.  In 1859, the state of California did pass a real law to divide
>into 2 states but Congress did not approve so we are spared too many
>Californias.  During the early Civil War, the Mayor of New York City
>proposed to make NYC, Long Island and Staten Island the independent free
>state of Tri-Insula.
>	Shameless plug:  I incorporated a lot of this stuff into an =
upcoming
>alternate history novel series, including Tri-Insula, which I renamed
>Islandia

You'll be hearing from Erica about that . . .

mjw

because the projected state is almost entirely composed of islands.
>B-)