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Nataqua Territory: Difference between revisions
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''[[United States Genealogy|United States]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] [[Nevada Genealogy|Nevada]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] [[Nataqua_Territory|Nataqua Territory]]'' [[Image:{{NataTerr}}]]<br><br> '''Nataqua Territory''' was an | ''[[United States Genealogy|United States]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] [[Nevada Genealogy|Nevada]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] [[Nataqua_Territory|Nataqua Territory]]'' [[Image:{{NataTerr}}]]<br><br> '''Nataqua Territory''' was an self-declared territory in northeast [[California Genealogy|California]] and western [[Nevada Genealogy|Nevada]] from 1856 to 1861. It was unrecognized by the United States. At the time the location of the eastern boundary of California and the western boundary of [[Utah Genealogy|Utah]] Territory were still vague. California claimed its eastern boundary was the 120th west longitude in 1850. Utah in 1849 had claimed [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Basin Great Basin] land as far as the crest of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Nevada_%28U.S.%29 Sierra Nevada]. Utah erected [[Carson County, Nevada Genealogy|Carson County]] in 1854, organized it in 1855, and sent 60 Mormon families in Spring 1856 to colonize the east slope of the Sierra Nevada. Non-Mormon residents in the Great Basin on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada felt physically cut off from California by the mountains, and alarmed at the prospect of coming under political control of Salt Lake City.<ref name="Davis">William Newell Davis, Jr., "The Territory of Nataqua: an Episode in Pioneer Government East of the Sierra," ''California Historical Society Quarterly'' 21, No. 3 (September 1942), 225-28. Online [http://www.jstor.org/stable/25161008 digital edition] at JSTOR ($).</ref> <br><br> | ||
Twenty residents of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanville,_California Susanville] in Honey Lake Valley (now in [[Lassen County, California]]) on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada apparently did not feel they were part of California, and did not care to be part of Utah. Led by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Lassen Peter Lassen] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Roop Isaac Roop], they met in "mass convention" 26 April 1856 at Roop's house. Their main purpose was to draw up land division rules for, and promote their valley. In the process the convention wrote, "Inasmuch as Honey Lake Valley is not within the limits of California, the same is declared a new territory . . . the said territory to be named Nataqua . . ." They went on to define a rectangle shaped territory by latitude and longitude which technically did ''not'' include their own valley, but did encompass most of what soon became western Nevada. About 600 residents of future Nevada mostly in Carson Valley were apparently unaware of the Honey Lake Valley "convention."<ref>Davis, 225.</ref> | Twenty residents of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanville,_California Susanville] in Honey Lake Valley (now in [[Lassen County, California]]) on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada apparently did not feel they were part of California, and did not care to be part of Utah. Led by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Lassen Peter Lassen] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Roop Isaac Roop], they met in "mass convention" 26 April 1856 at Roop's house. Their main purpose was to draw up land division rules for, and promote their valley. In the process the convention wrote, "Inasmuch as Honey Lake Valley is not within the limits of California, the same is declared a new territory . . . the said territory to be named Nataqua . . ." They went on to define a rectangle shaped territory by latitude and longitude which technically did ''not'' include their own valley, but did encompass most of what soon became western Nevada. About 600 residents of future Nevada mostly in Carson Valley were apparently unaware of the Honey Lake Valley "convention."<ref>Davis, 225.</ref> | ||