The State of Absaroka

While the history of United States is reasonably well documented, there are some less known facts, such as the existence of a short lived plan to create a state called Absaroka in 1939.

The tale of the would-be rebels, who called their new state Absaroka (pronounced ab-SOR-ka), from the Crow word meaning “children of the large-beaked bird,” then faded into the mist. Details were forgotten — how a baseball-player-turned-street-commissioner in Sheridan named A. R. Swickard appointed himself governor and began hearing writs of grievance, and how license plates were distributed along with pictures of Miss Absaroka 1939, the first and apparently last of her breed. There was even an Absarokan state visit, when the king of Norway made a swing through Montana. [Going Down the Road – A State That Never Was in Wyoming – Series – NYTimes.com]

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