A car is driven down Miner Street past the historic Franco American Hotel in Yreka, Calif., in this 2013, photo. Voters in Del Norte and Tehama counties will decide June 3 on an advisory measure asking each county’s board of supervisors to pursue an effort to break away from the state of California.SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Residents of California’s largely rural, agrarian and politically conservative far northern counties long ago got used to feeling ignored in the state Capitol and out of sync with major urban areas.
The idea of forming their own state has been a topic among local secession dreamers for more than a century. Residents in two counties will have a chance to voice that sentiment next week.
Voters in Del Norte and Tehama, with a combined population of about 91,000, will decide June 3 on an advisory measure that asks each county’s board of supervisors to join a wider effort to form a 51st state named Jefferson.
Elected officials in Glenn, Modoc, Siskiyou and Yuba counties already voted to join the movement. Supervisors in Butte County will vote June 10, while local bodies in other northern counties are awaiting the June 3 ballot results before deciding what to do.
A similar but unrelated question on the primary ballot in Siskiyou County asks voters to rename that county the Republic of Jefferson.