Most successful purchase of the month? A puzzle of a map of the US cut along state boundaries. One whole english pound from our local charity shop. Hours and hours and hours of fun as well as interesting conversation. ("Why does Oklahoma have a pan handle?"; "I have absolutely no idea!")
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Hey Guys,
Thanks for the recent updates, always appreciated. We have been meaning to call for ages but as usual, something gets in the way...will do better soon.
The Oklahoma Panhandle piqued my curiosity...It is 166 miles long and 33 miles wide and just weird looking... and believe it or not, it turns out it is do with both slavery and Indian colonisation. (I can't imagine the Americans are very proud of it!).
The southern border comes from the Missouri Compromise of 1820 whereby you could keep slaves below 36°30'N. When Texas joined the Union in 1845, it ceded the land above this line so it could be a "slave state".
The Northern Border comes from the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which divided Indian Territory into states above the 37th parallel and Indian territory below this line. (Hence why Nathanial's jigsaw has a lot of states all along this line in this region).
The ceded strip originally became no-mans land between New Mexico Territory to the the West and the Indian Territory to the East. The neutral strip then became part of Oklahoma when it joined the Union in 1907.
The pan handle even has its own wiki-page where I got most of the information (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Panhandle)
Yes, I am a geek!
Love James xx
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