The United States is a mess, and not just in the many intangible ways: The actual lines around the states look like they were drawn on an Etch-a-Sketch. We've got one shaped like a wang, another shaped like a boot, New England is a whole thing, and this? What the hell is this?
The answer, of course, is the Oklahoma Panhandle, but why? Why is Oklahoma? Well, in 1820, the Missouri Compromise just completely shit the bed on a number of issues, one of which was deciding that slavery was only immoral above an extremely arbitrary line across the middle of the country. When Texas decided to join the Union in 1845, they stretched way above that line, so they just declared "We no longer exist up there" so they could enter as a slave state. It was maybe the most racist Jedi mind trick, and that's saying something.
For the next several decades, that strip of land was officially nowhere, belonging to no one and legally known unceremoniously as "Public Land Strip." For a few years there, it was a Randian paradise with no laws, where "outlaws ran rampant, and violence and mob justice were the citizenry's only recourse." It was full of moonshiners and brothels, especially in a town that was actually named Beer City, surely the one Guns N' Roses was actually singing about.
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