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Nataqua Territory: Difference between revisions
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'''Nataqua Territory''' was an self-declared territory in northeast [[California, United States Genealogy|California]] and western [[Nevada Genealogy|Nevada]] from 1856 to 1861. At the time the location of the boundary between [[California, United States Genealogy|California]] Territory and [[Utah Genealogy|Utah]] Territory was still vague. Utah in 1849 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]. California claimed its eastern boundary was the 120th west longitude in 1850. Utah erected [[Carson County, Nevada Genealogy|Carson County]] in 1854, organized it in 1855, and sent 60 | '''Nataqua Territory''' was an self-declared territory in northeast [[California, United States Genealogy|California]] and western [[Nevada Genealogy|Nevada]] from 1856 to 1861. At the time the location of the boundary between [[California, United States Genealogy|California]] Territory and [[Utah Genealogy|Utah]] Territory was still vague. Utah in 1849 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]. California claimed its eastern boundary was the 120th west longitude in 1850. Utah erected [[Carson County, Nevada Genealogy|Carson County]] in 1854, organized it in 1855, and sent 60 Latter-day Saint families in Spring 1856 to colonize the east slope of the Sierra Nevada. | ||
Non- | Non-Latter-day Saint 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> 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 their valley, and to promote it. 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> | 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 their valley, and to promote it. 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> | ||
In the summer of 1857 most | In the summer of 1857 most Latter-day Saints in Carson Valley and the Sierra Nevada east slope hurried off to defend [[Salt Lake City, Utah|Salt Lake City]] from an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_War invasion by the U.S. Army]. The time was ripe for the remnant non-Mormon residents of the east slope to double their efforts to exert independence from both [[California, United States Genealogy|California]] and [[Utah Genealogy|Utah]]. | ||
A new convention on 8 August 1857 in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa,_Nevada Genoa] (formerly Mormon Station) petitioned Congress for the creation of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Territory Nevada Territory], and absorbed the Nataqua movement by making it a county in the proposed territory. On 3 October 1857 the Honey Valley residents in convention stated to California again asserting they were not part of California. Also they agreed to throw in their lot with the Genoa convention by requesting inclusion in the Nevada Territory. Nevertheless, the U.S. Congress dragged its feet and delayed immediate recognition of the proposed Nevada Territory. California continued to consider Honey Valley within its jurisdiction.<ref>Davis, 228-29.</ref> | A new convention on 8 August 1857 in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa,_Nevada Genoa] (formerly Mormon Station) petitioned Congress for the creation of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Territory Nevada Territory], and absorbed the Nataqua movement by making it a county in the proposed territory. On 3 October 1857 the Honey Valley residents in convention stated to California again asserting they were not part of California. Also they agreed to throw in their lot with the Genoa convention by requesting inclusion in the Nevada Territory. Nevertheless, the U.S. Congress dragged its feet and delayed immediate recognition of the proposed Nevada Territory. California continued to consider Honey Valley within its jurisdiction.<ref>Davis, 228-29.</ref> | ||