PRESTON, Minn. – At first Jason Sethre, publisher of the Fillmore County Journal, thought it was a joke – proposal for Iowa to buy all nine of Minnesota’s border counties. He still does, but he did some homework and discovered at least one state boundary change, between Minnesota and North Dakota, that came to fruition. The change, in 1961, was designed to mitigate flood risks from the Red River through Fargo and Moorhead. It was a tiny land swap for health and safety — far less than the 6,240 square miles of the nine Minnesota counties that Iowa State Senator Moke Bousselot is coveting.
Intriguing but doomed
More relevant to the Bousselot scheme than the Fargo-Moorhead swap are more dramayic plans for state border changes in recent decades that Sethre discovered. All sputtered and flamed out early.
> Oregon and Idaho. A proposal was floated for 13 counties in the desolate eastern Oregon desert to go to Idaho for what promoters called a Greater Idaho. The proposal made it to ballots in the Oregon counties in 1974 but went no further.
> Colorado. Some Western Slope enthusiasts wanted to break off from the rest of Colorado in 2013 and create a separate state. It didn’t work out.
> Colorado and Wyoming. People in isolated Weld County, cut off from the rest of Colorado in their peak-surrounded mountain park, wanted to secede in 2013 and become part of Wyoming, It didn’t work out.
> California 1. A 2016 proposal to split California into six individual states failed to get enough signatures to be on ballots.
> California 2. A 2018 proposal to create three new states out of California earned enough signatures for ballots. But the State Supreme Court threw it out.
> Illinois. Three down-state lllinois counties near St. Louis voted to explore secession. Nothing came if it.
> South Carolina. The boldest secession plan in U.S. history was led by South Caroina in 1860. We all know how that went.
Hurdles to overcome
Heavy obstacles discourage changing state borders. First, the territorial parties must agree through plebiscites. Second, Congress must concur.
Sethre. Publisher of Fillmore County Journal.
Verbatim
Sethre: “So let the custody battle begin. Hey, whether it’s Minnesota or Iowa, at least we know we’re wanted.”
Lopping off. The bottom tier of Minnesota counties. Pushing the border of Iowa within 20 miles of Winona. How does this sound: “Does LaCrescent, Iowa, tipple easily off the tongue?”