DUNSMUIR YOUTHS PUNCTURED
YREKA'S CAPITOL DREAM

By Robert D. Stone, DHS Class of 1943

The history lessons on taxation and individual freedom were not lost on a handful of Dunsmuir High School students in the early 1940s when they participated (anonymously) in the "State of Jefferson" movement. Other than casual conversations about their activities, this is the first coherent account of the "Northern Counties Anti-Jefferson Committee" which has been cloaked in mystery all these years.

The State of Jefferson was a novel tax-protest movement started by politicians, businessmen and chambers of commerce in five northern California and seven southern Oregon counties to get a more equitable return on taxes for economic development. The prime goal was road and highway improvement so that agricultural and timber products could be brought to market. Other issues were involved but they all were tied to a greater return of taxes to local governments and incidentally, to the political aspirations of the founders.

The Jefferson movement had mounted a public relations effort to dramatize their story and so, on every Thursday the State of Jefferson would come into existence. Signs were erected on the highway "borders" warning travelers that auto insurance issued in other states was not valid and, further, that sales taxes would not be collected that day. Needless to say, these secessionistic tactics reaped newspaper and radio coverage throughout the country.

Jefferson support was high in Siskiyou County and Yreka was dubbed the provisional capital. Although the Dunsmuir students supported the basic goals, they concluded that the pompous secessionists in arch-rival Yreka warranted a counter-movement just for the fun of it.

The ring leaders of the "Anti-Jeff' committee were Pat Hanratty, Joe Norred, Leslie Carlson, Pete Cornish, Bob Stone, and Cal Hughes, who furnished the basement for meetings and space for Hanratty's small printing press.

During the hot summer and long autumn of 1941, the Anti-Jeff group ground out press releases and leaflets pointing out the errors and problems of the pro-Jefferson movement. Response to the press releases was immediate from the Siskiyou Daily News which reprinted the material along with editorial comment on the "short-sightedness" and the dark "sinister" nature of the Anti-Jeff group. The battle of press releases and leaflets was now joined.

The San Francisco Chronicle and the Portland Oregonian carried pro- and anti-Jeff articles. During all this time, no one was aware that Dunsmuir teenagers were the "dreaded" opposition to the "noble and high ideals" of the founders of the State of Jefferson.

The anti-Jeff press releases were mailed in Mt. Shasta City and on railroad post offices (RPOs) so that postal marks would not betray the secret headquarters of the mysterious anti-Jeff group. Several forays into "enemy territory" were undertaken to Yreka to post handbills during Secession Thursdays when Yreka became the provisional capital. Other more extensive sorties were planned but due to the fragile nature of pre-1940 automobiles, the price of gasoline (17 cents a gallon), nubile Dunsmuir girls, and homework, these mighty efforts never took place.

After Pearl Harbor, the Jeffersonian leaders bravely announced that the movement was to be shelved for the duration. The great states of California and Oregon heaved a collective sigh of relief and retained their errant counties. The anti-Jeff group, having grown tired of the game, agreed wholeheartedly, and in the hectic war years that followed, all served in the American armed forces.

As a postscript, the State of Jefferson was reincarnated (and died again) as the "State of Shasta" during the 1950s. This time, however, Pat Hanratty was on the pro-forces as the "provisional secretary of state" and spark plugged the issue of water-rights as the prime reason for the embryonic State of Shasta.