I have heard many times about the State of Jefferson but never knew the origin story until I watched this 1-hour episode of Road Trip, originally aired February 7, 2008. In fact, I very recently learned that Jefferson is not the only ‘alternative’ state in California’s past: the Territory of Nataqua existed for a short time in northeastern California and northwestern Nevada during the 1850s! But that’s a story for another day; while Nataqua is pretty much forgotten these days, Jefferson has many proponents even now in California’s northern counties. And yet that’s only a small part of what this beautiful region has to offer, as Huell finds out as he explores the lands around Mt. Shasta.

Huell travels to the northernmost reaches of our state in search of the mythical “State of Jefferson.” There have been many attempts at forming a new state comprised of northern California and southern Oregon, but none has gained so much attention and retained it as the secession movement of 1941.

State of Jefferson Proclamation of Independence

You are now entering Jefferson, the 49th State of the Union.

Jefferson is now in patriotic rebellion against the States of California and Oregon.

This State has seceded from California and Oregon this Thursday, November 27, 1941.

Patriotic Jeffersonians intend to secede each Thursday until further notice.

For the next hundred miles as you drive along Highway 99, you are traveling parallel to the greatest copper belt in the far West, seventy-five miles west of here.

The United States government needs this vital mineral. But gross neglect by California and Oregon deprives us of necessary roads to bring out the copper ore.

If you don’t believe this, drive down the Klamath River Highway and see for yourself. Take

your chains, shovel and dynamite.

Until California and Oregon build a road into the copper country, Jefferson, as a defense minded state, will be forced to rebel each Thursday and act as a separate State.

Lassen County, September 2023

(Click on the linked image below to see the video.)