As a long time map junkie who is totally addicted to the ideas of lost maps or cartographic errors in particular, I was totally jazzed to find Michael Trinklein's Lost States in the Quirk Books (home of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies among many other unique titles) catalog. Trinklein has long collected stories of "states that never made it" (Transylvania, Forgottonia, Puerto Rico!) and he presents many of them in this excellently designed book that gives you just enough information to whet your appetite (and in many cases be more than bit surprised). Every page has maps - there are tons of maps in this book - and it is the balance between text and image that immediately made me think that this would be outstanding for teens, especially reluctant readers. I had visions of the T.S. Spivets of the world rising up in joy over Trinklein's literary curio cabinet that poses so many interesting questions about what might have been. I'll be including Lost States in a column this fall but didn't want to wait that long to introduce him to my friends. I hope you are all intrigued enough by our interview to go seek out his book; I think it is just right for anyone who has ever wondered why our country looks like it does and how all those lines on all those maps came to be.

CM: In your introduction you state you've been collecting lost map stories for decades. What initially sparked your interest in this rather arcane subject? Was there a story or location that you learned about that set you off to discover more?

MT: As a teenager in the 1970s I came across an article in Newsweek about folks trying to create the 51st state of Superior. I thought "you can do that?" It was an amazing revelation to me that the U.S. map is not cast in stone. Moses may have brought us 10 Commandments, but he didn't give us 50 states. Once I realized that our map is malleable, I began collecting stories of the people trying to make changes.

CM: There are several different arcs in the book, from places that almost became additional states or want to be additional states to places that were almost broken off from existing states and/or territories. Do we seem to go through geographical phases at all - meaning a period of breaking up what we have vs adding to our total? And is the secessionist talk cyclical? Have you seen periodic episodes of that kind of map making/altering in your studies?

MT: It's no secret that people rethink the map after a major war. Several of the entries in the book came right after WWII, when the whole world's map was in flux. And of course, the American expansion of the 19th century was a heyday for adding states.

While I didn't see a pattern on the meta level, I was very surprised to see how specific ideas keep coming back over and over again. Sometimes the proposals are 100+ years apart, but the basic plan has not changed. Long Island statehood is an example. The complaints Long Islanders had in the 1890s hadn't really changed when statehood was proposed again in 2009.

Similarly, the State of Lincoln (northern Idaho and eastern Washington) has been pitched every few years for more than a century--as new each new generation comes to realize the stupidity of the borders in the Pacific Northwest. Same story in Northern Michigan/Wisconsin... and many others.

And Texas is a story in itself. I could have done an entire book just on Texas' proposed splits. There have been dozens! As to secession from the Union, that's not something I spent much energy on. In fact, I tried to avoid it. No one's ever successfully seceded from the U.S.--but lots of new states have been formed.... so that's where I put my focus.


CM: I was particularly struck by your mention of Cuba and how close we > came to making it a state (or territory) and yet for all the times Cuba has been part of the national conversation, I don't recall hearing much about potential statehood. In fact most people can't even figure out how we ended up with Guantanamo. How prevalent has Cuba's statehood been in the press since the Spanish/American War and did you find out how the Cubans felt about this back in 1902?

MT: Actually, the idea of Cuban statehood goes back to the 1840s, when America was worried about foreign powers taking control of the Gulf of Mexico. Back then, both Cuba and the Yucatan were candidates for statehood. Cuban statehood proposals faded away after about 1910. What was interesting to me was that racism was the main roadblock to adding Cuba as a state. 40 years after the Civil War, most of the statehood discussion centered on the ability of "the negro race" to assimilate. As to the will of the Cuban people; they were never asked. Sen. Stephen Elkins (WV) wrote in 1906 "Today, I believe if there could be a free expression of the will of the Cuban people, they would favor annexation." But he didn't know for sure. And we still don't.

CM: I know you've been asked about Forgottonia and Daniel Boone's Transylvania in previous interviews but I was struck by Howland Island. I don't think most folks connect it with Amelia Earhart (which makes it incredibly fascinating) but the fact that there never has been an aircraft landing there really blew my mind. Is there anything on Howland Island now? What exactly are we doing with it?

MT: I'm glad you asked about this. It really is my favorite story in the book... just the remoteness of it all is fascinating. The U.S. government only visits once every two years! (For a while, we sent expeditions to the moon more often than Howland Island.) It was a huge challenge just to find a photo of the island. Now that the cats have been removed, visitors would find a lot of birds and some crumbling structures. And that's it. If you want to get away from it all, this is the place to go.

CM: And Saipan. Wow - that really blew me away. Can you explain what the > loophole is that allows garments made in Saipan to be labeled as "Made in the USA" but does not require it to adhere to US labor practices? Does there continue to be any interest in changing the laws there?

MT: When it became American territory in 1975, a deal was cut to exempt Saipan from U.S. minimum wage requirements and the Fair Labor Standards Act. They kept this deal in place by hiring lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pulled strings in Congress. This kind of stuff can really make one cynical. Abramoff is currently in Federal prison on corruption charges, but the laws in Saipan have not changed appreciably. Because the island is so far away from the rest of the U.S., American journalists have largely missed this story. In fact, the only organization to really follow this is Ms. Magazine, which broke the story in their Spring 2006 issue.

CM: And finally, what did you have to leave out when writing this book? There have to be some more interesting places that didn't fit into the book - any you want to share here?

MT: For printing reasons, we had to drop one entry at the last minute: Liberia. Here is an excerpt from that entry:

"During the mid-1800s, Liberia was an American state. Not officially, of course, but I think you’ll agree that the resemblance was strong enough to merit its inclusion in this book. A peek into the history, culture, and loyalty of the Liberian people reveals the most state-like character you’ll find outside the official 50.

Here’s what happened: In 1847, the United States wholeheartedly supported the founding of a mini-America on the west African coast. The idea was to create a place for freed slaves to live in peace. There was just one hitch: Ex-slaves returning to Africa had spent generations in the United States. They were Americans. So when they arrived in Africa, they attempted to set up American institutions. Thus the culture that developed in Liberia reflected the pre-Civil War south, not traditional Africa.

The Liberians spoke English, named their cites after the United States’ founding fathers, and even created an American-style flag. And that points to the biggest problem faced by these returning ex-slaves: they didn’t have much in common with the Africans who never left.

The ex-slaves, dubbed Americo-Liberians, ruled Liberia for more than 200 years, even though they were vastly outnumbered by the native Africans who also called Liberia home. Ethnic tensions gradually rose, leading to a military coup in 1980. That marked the end of legitimate elections, as Liberia devolved into a strongman dictatorship.
It’s a sad ending for an idea that began with so much hope and optimism."

Listen to an interview with Michael on NPR (and read an excerpt of the book). Also see his blog. All images here are from Quirk website and taken from Lost States.