Published in 2017 by Bernita Tickner and Gail L. Fiorini-Jenner, The State of Jefferson explores the colorful, enduring political secession movement aimed at carving a new U.S. state out of the rugged rural counties of Northern California and Southern Oregon. Through a rich collection of vintage photographs and historical anecdotes, the book traces the movement from its 1941 theatrical launch—complete with gold-panning miners brandishing rifles—to its modern manifestations rooted in geographic isolation and anti-establishment sentiment. The text details how residents of this timber-and-mining corridor have long felt economically and politically abandoned by distant state capitals in Sacramento and Salem. A keen insight drawn from the work is how the persistent mythos of the "State of Jefferson" functions less as a viable legislative blueprint and more as a profound psychological safety valve; it provides rural populations with a shared, defiant regional identity that channels deep-seated economic grievances against metropolitan dominance into theatrical civic rebellion.