![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dsc02083.jpg\" "\\"DSC02083\\"")
<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I was recently made aware of a physical and symbolic boundary that screamed, \u201cRoad Trip!\u201d.\u00a0 It is a \u2018landmark\u2019 of sorts that I believe most Californians, much less those who live outside our state of \u2018fruits and nuts\u2019, don\u2019t even know about . \u00a0It is simply two trees in the meridian of a highway that represent the mythical dividing line between Northern California and Southern California \u2013 and trust me on this one, there is a division.\u00a0\u00a0 As a matter of fact there have \u00a0been no less than 220 official initiatives, 27 that have been considered, \u2018serious\u2019, to separate California into, sometimes multiple pieces, but mostly in half.\u00a0 It seems this \u2018sometimes-less-than-civil\u2019 war has been going\u00a0on in California since the very beginning.<\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The first secession effort was in 1854, just four years after statehood.\u00a0 That attempt was a \u2018tri-state-ectomy\u2019 where the southern counties were going to be\u00a0called Colorado, a name not being used at the time, but one that a group from the Rockies had called \u2018dibs\u2019 on.\u00a0 The middle counties would retain\u00a0the California name, and the northern counties would be called the State of Shasta\u00a0\u2013 the State of Canada Dry had apparently already been taken.\u00a0 That initiative lost momentum when everyone was more interested in finding gold than defining boundaries.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The next secession attempt was five years later in 1859, but lost traction when all the paparazzi headed to the South covering another secession attempt, the beginning of the southern state\u2019s attempt to\u00a0break from the union and that pesky conflict that ensured. \u00a0With that, the California state-ectomy soon became back page news and Californians didn\u2019t want to waste time on political posturing when there was a good war going on.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ironically, it was another skirmish that got in the way of yet another effort by Californians to subdivide the state in the twentieth century.\u00a0 In 1941 individual counties\u00a0from both northern California and southern Oregon were seceding, one each week, to form the State of Jefferson \u2013 a name probably inspired by the television show of the same name, but, alas, the Japanese were planning some sub-dividing of their own that year, which gave those in the entire country, and particularly those on the west coast, more important things to worry about.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was another major state-ectomy\u00a0initiative in the 1960s \u2013 of course, what wasn\u2019t going on to interrupt the status quo in the sixties?\u00a0 Sorry, I don\u2019t remember.\u00a0 But hey, there was another war going on then too, so it must have been time to look at separating the state.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The nineties offered up another tri-sectomy\u00a0with a proposal of the states of Northern California, Central California and Southern California, which died in the state senate; I\u2019m thinking it was because no one wanted Bakersfield.\u00a0 As recently as mid-2011 the latest attempt to create the State of South\u00a0California was laughed\u00a0at by most politicians in the state; which was an ironic twist since we\u2019re usually laughing at <\/em>most politicians in the state.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The reality is, over the last 150+ years, destiny, providence circumstance and various wars have prevented us from even getting close to bifurcating California.\u00a0 So the trees have come to symbolize, at least to some, the cultural <\/em>divide between Northern California and SoCal \u2013 see, even these two terms typify the different cultures.\u00a0 So, you say, \u201cEnough with the history lesson, what\u2019s the story behind the trees?\u2019<\/p>\n \u00a0Coming in: The Palm\u00a0& The Pine \u2013 A California Story \u00a0Part II<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was recently made aware of a physical and symbolic boundary that screamed, \u201cRoad Trip!\u201d.\u00a0 It is a \u2018landmark\u2019 of sorts that I believe most Californians, much less those who live outside our state of \u2018fruits … read more