Every Proposed American State That Didn't Exist

In this video, I explore 37 states that almost existed in the United States but never made it. From Jefferson, which nearly split from California and Oregon, to the massive Deseret, proposed by Mormon settlers, these regions once fought for statehood but failed. Some, like Lincoln (Eastern Washington & Idaho Panhandle) and Superior (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula), wanted independence due to political neglect. Others, like Sequoyah (Native American state in Oklahoma) and Navajo (Four Corners region), aimed to preserve a specific cultural identity.
I also cover states that would have changed U.S. history from the very beginning - like Franklin (East Tennessee), which nearly became a state in the 1780s, or Texlahoma (Texas-Oklahoma border region), an attempt to merge parts of two states. Some proposals, like Forgottonia (Illinois), were more of a protest, while Chicago, Long Island, and South Florida all had serious pushes to separate due to economic differences.

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Could There Be 87 US States?!
00:39 'Lost States' Book
01:39 Old Map Of Rejected States
03:23 A (Small) Detailed Look At Each
03:36 Lincoln
04:08 Greater Idaho
04:18 Jefferson
04:54 South California
05:20 Nataqua
05:46 Mormon State of Deseret
06:22 A Third (Lost) Dakota
07:02 Navajo
07:40 Montezuma
08:16 Chippewa
08:33 Absaroka
09:00 Greater Minnesota
09:31 Superior
09:51 Chicago
10:20 Forgottonia
10:37 West Kansas
10:57 Texlahoma
11:21 Sequoyah
11:50 Jacinto
12:02 South Texas
12:25 Yazoo
13:04 West & South Florida
13:41 Transoconee
13:59 Transylvania
14:26 Vandalia/Westsylvania
15:03 Washington in... Ohio?
15:35 Franklin
15:57 Nickjack
16:19 Potomac/Washington DC
16:50 South Jersey
16:54 Wyoming in... Pennsylvania?
17:21 Chesapeake
17:29 Long Island
17:35 New Connecticut in... Ohio?
17:56 Acadia
18:16 Patreon Credits

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#GeneralKnowledge

[General.Knowledge]

*Any other proposed state you know of that I didn't mention here?*

[prion]

As I've heard it, it's not that Chicago wants to secede, it's that the rest of Illinois wants to kick them out.

[ThatLad]

I live in southern Oregon, and there are tons of people who have the “state of Jefferson” flag on their porches and as bumper stickers. It’s actually way more prevalent than you’d think.

[heatherevert]

You also should mention that the proposed state of Superior, in addition to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, included several counties that are in northern Wisconsin.

[mikaelsza]

If Washington DC is going to have statehood, it should annex Alexandria county to have a perfect square shape and increase their population.

[danielhutchins]

My American History Teacher in The 5th grade used to show me videos like these, and then again I remembered that General Knowledge also helped me pass my States and Capitals Test

[mikaelsza]

Brazil also has their set of states and territories proposed! Even a total reorganization was proposed by a militar!

[rh]

The Western Reserve was also called the Firelands, and served as a refuge for Connecticut residents whose towns were burned in the War of 1812. Pretty interesting to see a few little towns like Norwalk that look like New England plopped in the Midwest

[wardmicko]

This guy really undersells the proposal for South California, which probably came closer to actually happening than any other in this video. It has passed the Legislature in 1860 and required only Congressional approval to make it reality. But y'all might recall that there was a pretty big national crisis in the winter of 1860 that simply buried every other national concern, large or small. The bill died in Congress, and Sacramento was suddenly less interested in accommodating underrepresented Angelenos than in sending expeditions to crush secessionists wherever they could be found, first in Southern California, then the Southwest and eventually, West Texas.

[samsonsoturian]

Correction: Puerto Rico is NOT TAXED. Only Federal employees file Federal taxes there and that's simply because that's how the Feds do their pay all over.

[colterkaley]

As a resident of the state of Lincoln thanks for another informative video.

[stevejohnson]

Mistake at the end. It should have been Canada's Maritime region and not Canada's New England region.

[konrad]

Missing Delmarva, it had moderate support for awhile and even has some today with a wikipedia page.

[toddverbeek]

The emphasis in the name “Navajo” is on the first syllable, not the middle.

[YeLLowStonePark]

I got the Ghost States book a couple of years ago. I loved it so much that it inspired me to write an alternate history book where there are 72 US states.
I highly recommend it

[Sezstu]

Jefferson pops up quite a bit in Southern Oregon. The public radio station is Jefferson Public Radio.

[toddverbeek]

A bit of a script fumble at 8:22, when you refer to Michigan and Wisconsin instead of Montana and North Dakota.

[NoahShieldss]

I haven’t even watched it, but I know it’s already good [I watched it now and it’s fire. I forgot to put this here hours ago.]

[AstroBlakeD]

Heres a bit more detail for Chicago Statehood that was glossed over:

Over the past 50 years there's been multiple instances of both Chicago Metropolitain Area (aka Chicagoland) natives and Greater Illinois natives trying to separate each other from the joined state, mainly due to political reasons (Chicagoland is primarily a Blue region, while the rest of Illinois is a Red region) State laws made specifically for the wellbeing of Chicagoland and the majority of state funding seeping and being lost within the city of Chicago. With the most recent being a poll by southern Illinois counties voting whether or not Cook County should become its own state (state of Chicago), however the deepest form of the debate happened over the span of 20 years from the mid 90s to the mid 2010s via various news companies and state officials trying to map out what is considered primarily Chicago influenced areas/ what is considered "Greater Chicago", with the consensus being that Chicago actually affects a much greater area than previously thought, with the following counties being considered apart of Greater Chicago, through various sources.

Illinois: Cook, Lake, McHenry, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Grundy, Will, Kankakee, Dekalb, Boone, Winnebago, Ogle, La Salle.
Indiana: Lake, Porter, Jasper, Newton, La Porte.
Wisconsin: Racine, Kenosha, Walworth.
Michigan: Berrien.

with the Illinois only region taking up a whopping 10109 mi² and the total multistate region taking a even greater 16539.39 mi², and the population being a staggering 9, 130, 609 for the Illinois only region (2020 census) and the multistate region population being nearly a million more at 10, 572, 214 (2020 census) with it making it the 10th most populated "state" and 41st "state" by Area.

[HKI]

Transylvania is Hungary ❌️
Transylvania is Romania ❌️
Transylvania is America ✅️