The James Brothers The Courant Feb 17, 1875 (Longton)

[Roma Jean Turner]

I'm excited about the site, but I can't get the link above to open.  Should it be html at the end instead of htm?  I can't wait to see it.

[kdfrawg]

Nope, silly me forgot to type in the dot.com part of the URL. You'd think after all these years I would get good at that, but I don't seem too.

I fixed the link in the previous post, so it works now.

[Jody]

My grandmother  Rebecca Tabor Davis told me that Jessie    James came to their farm when she was little .   She lived in Holden, Mo.

[W. Gray]

This only remotely has a connection to Jesse James.

Does anyone else remember the last act of secession to occur in the United States? In the overall scheme of things, it happened only recently 150 miles from Elk County.

On April 9, 1961, McDonald County in southwest Missouri notified the capitol at Jefferson City the county was seceding from the state.  At first, citizens in the sparsely settled area drafted a petition to the state government asking McDonald County be given back to the Indians.  But then they determined secession was their best recourse. 

Residents of McDonald County (which incidentally has an Elk River) were hopping mad at the state believing they were in danger of losing their livelihood.  These people were not militia types but were dedicated in what they were doing.  Most everyone, however, believed they were joking. That is, until the situation got out of hand and the federal government decided to step in.

About fifty agitators met in Noel, Missouri, and created a provisional entity out of the county land area renaming it McDonald Territory.  They elected Z.L. McGowan president of the provisional territorial government.

The provisional government discussed asking Arkansas to annex the territory.  An idea seemingly welcomed by Orval Faubus, Arkansas governor.  However, no one could tell if Faubus was serious or only wanted to rankle the Missouri government.  Also discussed was joining with next door Delaware County, Oklahoma, to ask for admission to the union as the 51st state. Delaware County apparently went along for the publicity. 

By April 11, 1961, McDonald Territory began issuing passports and national identity cards to its citizens.

Quickly after that, the provisional government set up a process to issue visas to non-citizens. They then made visas a requirement for getting into the new Territory. 

A 300-man territorial border patrol was set up checking motorists coming into the territory.  People who were not Territorial citizens or did not have the necessary visas were provided with one.  This made big news and I recall watching the story on the NBC nightly news.  A news clip showed a highway into McDonald Territory with a typical border guard house and an up and down movable barrier to stop traffic.  Cars were backed up at highway entrances.  I also recall shotguns were carried by the guards.   These events caused a sensation and the secession became international news.

Next the provisional government began printing its own 2 cent postage stamps.  They also started minting their own wooden coins.

Next the provisional government asked the United Nations for $4 billion in aid.

At this point the federal government stepped in and advised the foolishness had to stop.  The state of Missouri followed by issuing a proclamation rejecting the secession.

********

So why were these folks so agitated? 

Trouble began when McDonald County with its principal but tiny towns of Noel, Pineville, and Southwest City were left off a family vacation guide printed on the back of the official 1961 Missouri state highway map.  The area had very little population but was an Ozark mountain resort area with river rafting a popular attraction. 

After McDonald County complained to the Missouri highway department about the omission, the department refused to apologize for any error.  The department then added insult to injury by saying the omission was actually intentional because the area was just not developed enough to justify inclusion on an official map.  Inhabitants became outraged at this intentional slight since tourism was their principal income.  Additionally, Pineville thought itself important enough in its own right because it had been the shooting location for the 20th Century Fox 1938 motion picture, Jesse James, starring Henry Fonda and Randolph Scott.  It still uses that event in advertising. 

Weels were set in motion for secession and the events that were to follow.

McDonald County and its main towns were back on the map the following year. 

[Carol (aka Nana 02)]

This story caught my eye! I guess because I spent my childhood in Longton & now for the past 25 years have made my home in McDonald County (Pineville MO) And yes we do have a beautiful Elk River here that we love to canoe down!   

[kdfrawg]

Goodness gracious, W. Gray, that is a wonderful story wonderfully written. If I could figure out some way to work it into my GenuineKansas website, I would do it. Thanks for sharing that with us!

[Janet Harrington]

If I can remember some of the books I have read about sheriffs, I believe that McDonald County, Missouri was one of the crookedest (is that a word?), in Missouri.  They had a sheriff there that would take money from the marijuana growers so that they could keep planting.  I think that was in the 70's.

[kdfrawg]

The sheriff in Mendocino County, California got put away for a considerable time for doing exactly that. By the time the State and Feds figured it out, there was acre after acre of it growing almost year around, and had been for quite a while.