Awhile ago I told you about a new book that just happens to include the Forgotonia region as the topic of one of its chapters.

As you might guess from its subtitle, True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It, it’s filled with fun bits of trivia. Like the fact that we might have made Cuba a state if it weren’t for oh, you know, pure racism. Or the fact that Chicagoans once thought that downstate farmers held all the political power—a direct opposite of the feelings behind the Forgotonia movement—and wanted their own state.

Each proposed state is featured in a short, dryly humorous write-up and a corresponding map created by the author, whose career has focused on documentary filmmaking and teaching before publishing this book. Trinklein was a writer and producer for the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary Pioneers of Television, as well as The Gold Rush (1998) and The Oregon Trail (1993).

Lost States gets you thinking about how we define ourselves as a nation and as state citizens. And about how arbitrary some of the decisions behind our concrete-seeming realities really are. (Case in point? The recent news that legislative districts in Illinois are still determined by whichever political party pulls the winning slip of paper out of a hat.)

The book and its author, Michael Trinklein, have recently been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, C-SPAN, and many other media outlets. As I read the book and began following the author on his blog, I really wanted to know more about him. How he got the idea for the book? How had he heard about the Forgotonia movement? Did he visit this region? And if so, what did he think of it?

So I dialed him up. (Well, the e-mail way.) And Trinklein, whose book was featured in The New Yorker, was gracious enough to grant a phone interview to this blogger.

(So it was a tad embarrassing when I didn’t know the answer to the one thing he really wanted to know from me: should “Forgotonia” have one “T” or two?)

Learn more about how the idea for the book took shape, what he thinks about life in the Midwest, and more—and leave me your thoughts, proposed statehood suggestions, or questions—below.

A Q&A with Lost States author Michael J. Trinklein

So, what state are you from? You’re talking to me now from Wisconsin. Is that where you’re from originally? Tell me about your life leading up to this book.

Well, I was born in Illinois; we lived in Evanston until I was five. But I grew up in Wisconsin. I went to college at the University of Wisconsin, and after that I went to the University of Iowa for graduate school. I majored in filmmaking in both, and I then took job teaching filmmaking at Idaho State University, and I was there for 20 years. That spurred me on to do the book, partly, because the geography of Idaho is really screwy.

So in looking at the list of documentaries you’ve worked on, and then at this book, it seems like the common theme of your research or general interest is history. In the films you made, how did you get inspired to pursue those subjects?

For The Oregon Trail, I think it was something about…well, growing up in Wisconsin and Illinois, history can seem a little bit further away than it is in Idaho; I mean, I knew people in Idaho who were older than the state! [laughs]. I remember very distinctly being on family vacation out west and seeing the [still visible] ruts [from wagon wheels], and hearing about how “those are actually from the Oregon trail.” It was so fascinating to me that we could walk in the same steps as people from history. That kind of got me started.

You thank your parents in the book for dragging you through practically every state in the country. So do you really credit those childhood car trips with sparking your interest in geography?

You know, when I was growing up, interstates were still young. We went to California on a four-day trip, we went to Mexico, to Texas. And in the era before iPods, you had to look out the window, you had to see the land. It was always kind of fascinating how… Living where I live now, and where you live now, when you’re driving west toward Denver, it’s fairly flat. And then all of a sudden the interstate starts to double back on itself, twisting back on itself [as you approach the mountains]. And  I remember saying to my grandfather, ‘They can do that?’ So yeah, we went everywhere, and it was fascinating to see the land change a bit.

What initially got you thinking about doing this book project?

Growing up, I was always kind of interested in maps. As a kid, when I was young, they’d give away free ones at the gas station; I kind of collected them, and as I would study them over, I wondered, “Why are they running a road through there and not there?” I remember, in about 1975 or so, as a teenager, there was an article in Newsweek about the potential State of Superior [the secession of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from the rest of the state], and I remember just being blown away by that; I couldn’t even believe you can do that. I mean, in my generation, we haven’t seen any new states added, so I remember thinking, “Can you really do that?”

Over the years, I kind of collected stories of states and borders. Some people collect baseball cards…[laughs] I collected those kinds of stories. It was kind of a fascination. I had a file of these stories for decades, but I guess I didn’t really start working on it in earnest until about 2005. It wasn’t something I did full-time.

But you really had mentally or physically collected the stories that make up the content of this book since you were a kid?

Absolutely. I’ve had this huge filing cabinet labeled “maps.”

Can you describe how you went about most of the research for the maps and the book?

I tried, wherever possible, to go to primary sources, and for me that generally meant newspapers from the era. Some of these states—Boston’s a good example—basically it was just [one source], the Boston Globe from 1919 [that was available], and nothing else. That’s one problem with a topic like this; the problem with talking with people from over a hundred years ago is that the people are not still around.

But [like the book states in the introduction], the point with these was not to do an exhaustive review, but to be light, to get people interested in maps, history, and geography.

For a few of them, it was really hard to find good information on. Others I didn’t want to do because there was already so much on them, like Puerto Rico, or splitting California—there are whole books on splitting up Texas. But I don’t think anyone’s really gathered these stories up before.

I was glad to see that you had included Forgotonia in the book, because I think mostly it was tongue-in-cheek, more of trying to make a point than anything.

What I’ve found is, in any of these proposals, there is a certain number of people who are dead serious, there are others who think it’s funny, and it’s hard to sort out which one’s the greatest number. Some of them started out as kind of a joke, but . . . I think all great ideas start out in life in somebody’s head, and they might sound crazy, but then they become reality.

Lost States was published by Quirk Books—and your book is quirky. Because of the sort of unusual subject matter, did you ever have a hard time getting people to understand why you were interested in this? Did you have a hard time pitching it to publishers?

Yeah, you know, I think I worked on it for awhile without even telling my family, [laughs], because they’d be wondering what I was doing …But a lot of these things had never been mapped, so it was kind of fun to do. I worked on it on the weekends, that’s kind of what I do for fun, as odd as that sounds. I did a sort of self-published version at first, but it sold, like, five copies [laughs]. But honestly that was okay, because the point was not to make a lot of money or anything. I did it because I thought it was fun. But yeah, it’s not easily compartmentalized. Some publishers would say they thought it would be a good childrens’ book. But then Quirk Books said they liked it, but that I’d have to expand the content. So I added more states.

You hear those classic stories a lot of times, about how they try to get something published and it’s “No one likes your book, then all of a sudden one publisher likes it, and it ends up doing really well.” Well, not to try to compare myself [to those writers], but that’s kind of how it works in real life.

So how did you first hear about the Forgotonia story?

I think I found it on the web. Only three or four of the stories in the book came that way; the others were through clippings or books actually. I think it was one of the stories I found when I was looking for “51^st state” proposals, when I had to expand the book.

What did you find about Forgotonia that surprised you?

Well, just that…growing up with the freeways and seeing them built, I was fascinated that … [the proposed interstate] still isn’t done, and that everyone wants that road [laughs]. I looked into the highway legislation, and you know, it’s in there, and then they’re taking it out, and it’s like you can just kind of see everybody go [imitates frustrated cry] “oh, no!” … I think sometimes we forget how important those freeways are to commerce.

Since you did most of the research for the Forgotonia section by reading about it, have you ever had reason to actually visit the region?

I have driven back and forth to St. Louis a lot, so I have been on the fringes of that area many times.

So are there any observations about the area that stand out in your mind?

Well, [laughs], as you know, there’s corn. And I think that…I like that part of the country. I basically live in it. And Wisconsin and Iowa are not that different [from Illinois], of course. I like rural places… it’s kind of appealing to me. And part of the larger point of the book, I think, is that there’s a lot more to America than the just the coasts. [This region is] rural, but that’s a good thing.

It’s interesting to me that, when we were doing the Pioneers of TV series, and we were doing interviews with people in LA and New York, people in those places are not as happy, a lot of times, as people in the “flyover” states. We have this inferiority complex because we’re not on TV every night. But I think we’re a lot better off. When people are pushed together, they’re more stressed out. Here, there’s plenty of free parking [laughs]. So… it’s a pretty good lifestyle.

Please allow me to give a huge thanks to the reader who alerted me to this story (via a comment on a previous post).

This esteemed reader landed on my blog because he or she had Googled the word “Forgotonia” after hearing it mentioned on the syndicated public radio news-magazine show Here & Now.

It turns out that our very own forgotten western Illinois region was mentioned on the show because it is featured in a new book: Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It.

On the radio show, the host and author talk about this region as being  “just corn”–and why our title still applies (i.e., why we’re still “losers.“)

(As always, I find that it’s both exciting and unsettling to hear our region described and articulated from the outside perspective.) You can listen to the host’s interview with the author, Michael J. Trinklein, via the Here & Now web site’s archives (scroll down to “The States that Didn’t Make the Cut” and click on the “Listen” icon.)

I went a’Googlin’ after I listened to the clip. I didn’t find a lot of information on this author or his background, but I did check out his Lost States blog. (I think that in addition to the fact that we are both interested in concepts like Forgottonia, we would also be friends because he makes fun of Sarah Palin. Points!) If you’re curious about which other proposed states Trinklein covers in the book, you can take a quick tour via this Flickr page with images of the proposed states.

Also, I ordered the book as a gift for my dad (a lifelong Forgotonia resident) for his birthday. Last weekend, when I was in Iowa City, I saw a copy in Prairie Lights and had to sneak a peak.  When I flipped to the Forgotonia section, I saw a picture and cutline that (as on the radio show) made some kind of quip about Forgotonia residents not having much more to love than corn syrup. (It filled me with that same mixture of feelings I got when I had read Barbara Ehrenreich’s description of my birthplace and homeland as  “industrial-agricultural wasteland.”)

I desperately wanted to read more while I was in the bookstore, but figured I should preserve the experience of sitting down to pour over it.  So now  I’m excitedly waiting until my dad’s copy arrives in the mail today  so I can read it before giving to him for his birthday.

Did you hear the Lost States story? Do you think we still deserve the Forgotonia title? Do you think we are unique because we still don’t have that interstate? How do you feel when you see or hear our region mentioned in the news, pop culture, or literature?

Let me hear from you in the comments below.

Barbara Ehrenreich, author of  Nickel & Dimed: On Not Getting By in America, (which I read right after it was published, and liked–and I regret not going to hear her when she was right here in town), has published  an essay in The Financial Times that describes her visit to Forgotonia.

A quick sampling:

…. I’m staying at the Hampton Inn, a minimalist motel chain located opposite a Farm King, an agricultural supply store. I can’t help asking whether this is where the university puts up a genuine celebrity speaker, such as Bill Cosby. “Oh no,” I am told, “he flew in in his private plane and out the same night.”

As Heather, who made me aware of this essay, put it: it’s funny and sad at the same time.

(Make sure to catch the references to the late Spaz,  and to …well, WIU. And, for those of us all-too-familiar with QC commuting, to driving along Hwy 34.)

At least her take on the experience wasn’t quite as bad as Kurt Vonnegut’s. (She at least didn’t use the phrase  “Jerkwater U.”)

Chris Benedict, 21, of Nauvoo, is in the national news for hacking, but he’s not in trouble.

Check out the story on CNN.com.

(Thanks to “Hancock Hustla’”  M.T. for the tip, via Facebook.)

A new photo essay about small-town America,

“Empty places. Empty spaces”

by my good friend and amazing photojournalist Kent Kreigshauser,
(a former colleague from my days as a reporter for the Galesburg Register-Mail, where Kent continues to rock.)

This photo at right shows the former Wal-Mart, which sits gapingly empty right on the main drag (Henderson Street). The new Super Center is just a mile or so away, on the edge of town. This building has been empty for several years now.)

For my non-local readers:  Galesburg was the birthplace of poet Carl Sandburg. If you own a Maytag appliance, it was more than likely built in Galesburg, before the town lost the major Maytag plant to Mexico several years back.

This photo essay gives a bleak but honest picture of what’s going on in a lot of Forgotonia (and the country in general).

Check out Kent’s photo essay here.

from Entertainment Weekly:

from today’s Journal Star

14 state historic sites to reopen

SPRINGFIELD —

Randy Jackson never really left his job when the Lincoln Log Cabin near Charleston closed a few months ago. He continued making clothes, training horses, even traveling around in 19th century-era clothing – just without the pay and benefits.

Next week, he’ll be officially back, in time for the busy tourist season.

The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency confirmed Wednesday that 33 workers at 14 state historic sites closed last fall will be called back to work April 22. The shuttered sites closed by ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich last November should open soon, IHPA spokesman Dave Blanchette said.

Reopening soon

David Davis Mansion, Bloomington

Bishop Hill Museum, Bishop Hill

Jubilee College, Brimfield

Carl Sandburg State Historic Site, Galesburg

Dana-Thomas House, Springfield

Fort de Chartres, Prairie du Rocher

Fort Kaskaskia, Ellis Grove

Pierre Menard Home, Ellis Grove

Apple River Fort, Elizabeth

Bryant Cottage, Bement

Hauberg Indian Museum at Black Hawk State Historic Site, Rock Island

Lincoln Log Cabin, Charleston

Old Cahokia Courthouse, Cahokia

Vandalia Statehouse, Vandalia

After several months of seeing bills pile up, Jackson is eager to get back to the maintenance work.

“This thing in a lot of ways has been a real blessing for me. We’ve had so much help from friends and family in this situation,” Jackson said.

Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, said the agreement to rehire the workers was reached Monday between AFSCME and Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration.

“Reopening state historic sites and returning all laid-off employees to work is the right thing to do,” Lindall said, adding AFSCME hopes the governor also rehires dozens of state Department of Human Services employees who also were laid off last fall.

Blagojevich closed the historic sites and seven state parks, citing budget shortfalls. But after he was impeached and removed from office, Quinn announced he was undoing those moves.

Quinn ordered the Department of Natural Resources to reopen the parks a few weeks ago but waited until lawmakers approved more spending two weeks ago to get the sites back up.

How quickly they reopen is still unclear, Blanchette said.

“That will depend largely on the response to the recall notices,” Blanchette said. “Our goal is to get all sites reopened.”

At the Dana-Thomas House in Springfield, supporters are eager to see visitors walk inside again rather than circle the perimeter, said Regina Albanese, executive director of the house’s foundation.

Albanese said the foundation now is working on restocking the gift shop inside the Dana-Thomas House for visitors and asking would-be patrons to be patient for a little bit longer.

“Very soon we’re going to be able to put out the welcome mat,” Albanese said. “It’s just very exciting. It’s just been a real odd thing. Hopefully, things get better and better from here on out.”

Jackson says closing the Lincoln site he’s helped build up during more than 27 years on the job has hurt the Charleston area, from local restaurants to tourism. Many people he talks to are baffled the state closed the site during the 16th president’s 200th birthday celebration year.

But all along, he says, he knew the day would come when he’d get the call back to work. Jackson sees the site regaining its popularity quickly.

“I just kind of turned it over and let it happen,” Jackson said.

Ryan Keith can be reached at (217) 788-1518 or ryan.keith@sj-r.com.

from the Peoria Journal-Star yesterday and today:

Al-Marri indicted on terrorism-related charges; Justice Department seeks dismissal of complaint he filed

By ANDY KRAVETz

Al-Marri may be tried in Peoria

Nearly six years after he was whisked away after being named an enemy combatant, it appears Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri will come back to the land of Lincoln.

Local federal prosecutors couldn’t comment but news reports from the Washington Post and The Associated Press cited confidential sources that said al-Marri’s case would likely return to Illinois and possibly Peoria, where previous charges were dropped in 2003.

One of the people familiar with the al-Marri case said prosecutors plan to charge him with providing material support to terrorists, a charge similar to what he would have faced if tried by a military tribunal.

Sharon Paul, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Springfield, said she could not comment on the matter. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd declined to comment on the plans for al-Marri.

The move comes just weeks before President Barack Obama’s administration had to file papers in al-Marri’s case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court outlining their position on whether the Qatar national could be held as an enemy combatant indefinitely.

Obama had ordered the Justice Department to review the case and give him a report on his options. The president has never made clear his stance on the matter and government lawyers have a few more weeks to file their final briefs in the Supreme Court case.

At issue is the constitutional question of how much power the president has during wartime and whether the government can hold a person without charges and without a trial.

It was unclear Thursday if the anticipated move would render moot the case before the high court. Jonathan Hafetz, one of al-Marri’s lawyers, said he would oppose such a move, saying the Supreme Court must rule on the legal quandary.

Hafetz called the potential transfer of custody an “important first step,” but one that must be accompanied by a parallel action in Washington, D.C., which could possibly set limits on the power of the executive branch in wartime.

The attorney, with the American Civil Liberties Union, said he had spoken to al-Marri this week and that his client was doing well, despite nearly six years in solitary confinement. His overriding desire, Hafetz said, was to have his case heard in court and then to return to his family in Qatar.

Al-Marri was arrested in December 2001 as a material witness for a New York-based grand jury investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Within weeks, he was charged first in New York and then in Peoria’s federal court with credit card fraud and lying to the FBI.

Those charges were dropped in June 2003, when former President George W. Bush declared him an “enemy combatant” and whisked him away to a naval brig in South Carolina, where he has been held since.

Government officials have said al-Marri came to Peoria under the guise of getting his master’s degree at Bradley University, but his intent was to lead a second wave of attacks against America.

I mentioned awhile back that President Obama is reviewing the case of the “Peoria-area” suspected terrorist, and his decision could be a landmark legal case.

But how foolish I now feel, now that I was reminded that this dude had actually lived and worked in MACOMB! (Check out this timeline that the Washington Post put together in 2007.)

Thanks to the Macomb Eagle, I now know the scoop:

Obama requests review for Macomb resident, enemy combatant
1/30/2009

By NATHAN WOODSIDE

Eagle Managing Editor

A former Macomb resident, held as an al-Qaida sleeper agent, could soon be given a trial or sent home after President Barack Obama asked the U.S. Justice Department to review his case.

Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri has been held in solitary confinement for over five years as an enemy combatant in South Carolina’s Hanahan Naval Brig. The government said al-Marri had ties to the 9-11 terrorist attacks, prompting former President George W. Bush to order al-Marri imprisoned without formal charges [perhaps one of the few smart things he ever did? Or: yet another racial profiling incident? Discuss].

Obama requested the review to determine whether or not al-Marri has the right to sue the government for his freedom. His case is scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 but the review could put a stay on that proceeding.

Al-Marri, a Qatar nationalist, worked as a computer science instructor at Spoon River College, Macomb, in the late 1980′s.

In the 1990′s, he ran a fraudulent business, AAA Carpet, while living in the Time Out motel on North Lafayette Street.[No way!!!!!]

Reports show al-Marri flew to New York from Peoria just prior to Sept. 11.

After the terror attacks, al-Marri attempted to enroll in WIU’s English program but was turned away when he refused to sign his name.[OMG this gets even crazier!!!! This is where I work! This is where I am a grad student in English!!!]

University advisors also reported other strange patterns in his behavior.

Al-Marri was originally arrested on credit fraud charges after he set up fake bank accounts in Macomb, Peoria and Manhattan, NY. While awaiting trial for those charges, he was detained as an enemy combatant.

The handling of Al-Marri’s case could define the rights of those classified as enemy combatants.

In 2007, a South Carolina appellate court ruled al-Marri must either be charged, declared a material witness or freed. The Bush administration snuffed the court’s findings and al-Marri remained jailed without being

charged.

Last summer an appellate court ruled the government could hold al-Marri but he had the right to challenge his imprisonment.

“That ruling transgresses black-letter principles of statutory construction, flouts Congress’s intent, and raises grave constitutional questions unnecessarily,” al-Marri’s attorney wrote. “It deviates dangerously from this nation’s most cherished constitutional principles and traditions. It must be reversed.”

Obama has described al-Marri as a “dangerous individual.”

A. “President Barack Obama has asked his Justice Department to review the case of a former West Peorian accused of being a sleeper agent for al Qaida.”

Maybe you might already be following the case of the Peoria-based suspected terrorist. But in case you missed it last week, there was a pretty big development in terms of what might happen now that Obama is in office.

If I’m understanding it correctly, the news reports say that what Obama eventually decides [about how to handle this guy] could affect the way other possible-terrorists / average citizens-turned-suspects who just happen to be of Middle Eastern descent [but also happen to be doing some weird things with credit cards] are treated, in terms of whether or not they should continue to be held in custody.

Read the full story from the Peoria Journal-Star ["President has asked Justice Department to review al-Marri's case, The Associated Press has learned "] here.