Talk:Jefferson Territory

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Kansas Merger

There seems to be some implication that on august 7 1860 the territory remerged with KS territory, but others say that folks were still be elected to Jeff Territory govt offices at that time. I'll do some more looking to fill in 1860, but this should cover it for now. jengod 03:29, Mar 27, 2004 (UTC)

A merger was proposed by the Jefferson Territory, but the merger was rejected by the Kansas Territory. See article. Buaidh 05:57, 23 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Dates?

What's with the weird date styles? 1859-10-24? --AW 21:57, 22 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Please see Help:Preferences#Date_format and Special:Preferences for how to set dynamic date preferences. (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss is a standard computer date and time format, i.e., a simple text sort will sort entries chronologically.) Buaidh 05:51, 23 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Borders

The proposed Territory of Jefferson included all of the present State of Colorado, but it was 70 percent more extensive. The territory had the same southern boundary as the present State of Colorado, the 37th parallel north, but it extended 138.1 miles (222.2 kilometers) farther north to the 43rd parallel north, about 2.7 miles (4.3 kilometers) farther east to the 102nd meridian west, and about 50 miles (81 kilometers) farther west to the 110th meridian west.

I added a fact tag to this just now. Mark Stein's book "How the States Got Their Shapes" (2008) describes different borders for Jefferson Territory: 35th parallel on the south, 42nd parallel on the north, east and west boundaries the same as today's Colorado (102nd and 109th meridians). Congress accepted the east and west borders but not the north and south ones when creating the Territory of Colorado. The reason for the borders of Jefferson, according to Stein, was to encompass as much gold fields as possible as well as a good amount of agricultural land. Congress kept the east and west borders due to a desire to make western states 7 degrees wide (Oregon had already been made, later other 7 degree wide states include Washington, the Dakotas, and Wyoming), but adjusted the north and south borders. A southern border at the 35th parallel would have included hispanic Santa Fe as well as a slice of Texas (making it unconstitutional). The northern border at the 42nd parallel made sense as corresponding to the old Spanish-American boundary. Congress moved it to the 41st parallel so that three states could be created between New Mexico and Canada, each 4 degrees in height (Colorado, Wyoming, Montana).

Regardless of the reasons for the borders, I was surprised to find the description (and map!) on this page so different. Stein's book seems like a good source on borders, so I wonder where the info on this page came from. Pfly (talk) 04:48, 25 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Good question. Considering that it was never an officially recognized entity, it may be understandable that sources conflict in some details. A 1922 Bulletin by the U.S. Geological Survey has a map of the territory showing the boundaries as 43°N as northern boundary, 37°N as southern boundary, 110°W as the estern boundary and 102°W as the eastern boundary. Another source, the Provisional Laws and Joint Resolutions Passed at the First and Called Sessions of the General Assembly of Jefferson Territory has a chapter defining boundaries for several counties. I don't have enough familiarity with the geography of the area to provide any summary of how it compares with the other sources. In the The Last American Frontier by Frederic Logan Paxson, the boundaries for the proposed state are described as 102 to 110 meridians and 37 to 43 latitude. A few pages later, the book indicates the same boundaries were kept for the proposed territory. older ≠ wiser 13:18, 25 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Re-opening Kansas Merger topic

The article states: "On August 7, 1860, Steele issued a proclamation requesting that the Provisional Government of the Jefferson Territory be merged into the Kansas Territory. Kansas officials would have no merger with what they considered to be an outlaw government, so the stalemate continued." but gives no source. I've added a citation need tag to the statement. The background reading I've been doing (here specifically) says that Kansas's Wyandotte Constitution, which set the boundary between Kansas and Jefferson the same as Jefferson proposed, had already been passed at this point so it seems to contradict the "no merger with outlaw government" sentiment in the article. If a reliable source could be found to substantiate this claim, or even just expand on the reasoning behind the proposed merger, I would like to see it. -Killian441 (talk) 01:01, 6 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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