Remembering McDonald County’s Secession From Missouri

: On April 12, 1961, Exactly 100 Years After the Start of the Civil War, A Little Known County Seceded From Its Parent State of Missouri!

Sixty-one years ago on April 12, 1961, Missouri Senator Lee Aaron Bachler introduced a legal document on the Senate floor of the State House for a resolution to form a 51st state to consist of McDonald County, Missouri, and the adjoining counties of Benton County, Arkansas, and Delaware County, Oklahoma. The story was picked up by A.P. and U.P.I. and made its way overnight around the world in daily newspapers. Thanks to features in The McDonald County Press, The Joplin Globe, The New York Times, the Chicago Daily Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, this spunky Ozark County became a national sensation with international exposure.

1961 Ozark Breakaway: The Year That McDonald County Seceded From Missouri, tells for the first time the complete story of when on April 12, 1961, a little county in the Ozarks submitted legal papers on the Senate floor of the State Capitol to secede from Missouri and form a fifty-first state of the union by joining neighboring counties in Arkansas and Oklahoma. This action captured America's heart and mind as its news spread overnight to become a national sensation with international exposure.

McDonald County's decision to secede from its home state of Missouri in April of 1961 was not a publicity stunt when it began. It was the result of people whose livelihoods were compromised and were forced to take matters into their own hands. When people are pushed beyond reason, they become unhappy and, the more they dwell on it, the more those feelings arouse anger with thoughts of revenge. The question then becomes, what to do about it? McDonald County chose not to make their 1961 secession a move of animosity against their home state. They knew their only hope for success was to win over the hearts and minds of fellow Americans, including those in Missouri.

They realized as inhabitants of Ozark Mountains, their best approach would be to capitalize on being considered hillbillies by vacationers and outsiders. Human nature does not normally permit people to become defensive or angry with those who make fun of themselves. And it becomes a real attention-getter when a larger group employs this strategy. Celebrated Missourians Mark Twain and Thomas Hart Benton paid tribute to the ordinary people of Missouri and were ultimately celebrated throughout America for it.

At the State House in Jefferson City, Missouri, on April 12, 1961, state senator Lee Aaron Bachler introduced a legal document for a resolution to form a 51st state that would consist of McDonald County, Missouri, and the adjoining counties of Benton County, Arkansas, and Delaware County, Oklahoma. The proposed new 51st state would triple in size, and such action would likely put pressure on Missouri politicians since sister states would be gaining beneficial publicity at Missouri's expense.

The news spread literally overnight, gaining national and international news media coverage and sparking a barrage of secession events, which lasted throughout the summer and fall of 1961.

By early July, even the Kennedy Administration took notice of McDonald Territory's rebel spirit when it decided it was time to restrain this secession idea as it was spreading to include all the Ozarks and more than just one county in Missouri. The popular monthly magazine, The Ozarks Mountaineer, enthusiastically supported what became "McDonald Territory" and outlined plans for how the entire Ozarks might become a separate state of the Union. The Administration quickly informed the magazine's publishers, "...in the interest of national security to withdraw support and thus prevent the separation movement from becoming nationwide in scope and unmanageable."

Offering some of the Ozarks' finest people, scenic landscapes and pristine streams flowing alongside massive limestone bluffs, McDonald County attracted vacationers beginning in the early 1900s when the railroad traversed the county from north to south. Numerous cabin courts, resorts, commercial caves and privately owned cabins were scattered throughout the county. When a dam was constructed on Elk River in 1923, Shadow Lake was formed, making the little town of Noel one of the most popular vacation destinations in the Ozarks.

The trouble all began in mid-July of 1960 when the Missouri Highway Department, without warning, changed signs so that U.S. Highway 71 no longer went through Noel. This confused vacationers and resulted in a significant loss of income for Noel and parts of McDonald County. Then in April of 1961, the same Highway Department omitted eight of the ten towns in McDonald County from their new official Vacation Land highway map. Noel was one of the missing towns. When protests to elected officials resulted in a mere apology, residents of McDonald County felt they had no recourse but to break away or secede. Fortunately, they wisely chose to make their action a good-natured breakaway by presenting themselves as "Ozark hillbillies" and by performing in a variety of popular humorous events and gatherings throughout the summer and fall of 1961.

Residents changed the name of McDonald County to McDonald Territory and printed thousands of Territorial Visas that visitors and vacationers were required to carry while in the new "territory." Tourists coveted the visas as proof to show friends and relatives back home they were actually in the new territory. Three new territorial post offices appeared and 30,000 territorial mailing stamps were printed for adding to letters and correspondences. Permission was granted by the U.S. Postal Service to allow the new territorial stamps to be used along with the required U.S. Postal stamps.

1961 Ozark Breakaway: The Year McDonald County Seceded From Missouri was written by Dwight Pogue, one of the few remaining players, when the author was sixteen years old in 1961 and owing to his family's weekly newspaper found himself an active participant. He volunteered to drive his first car, a 1931 Model A Ford five-window coupe with rumble seat to transport the famed Territorial Border Patrol when handing out and checking territorial visas to visitors. Dwight was also the official photographer and one of the fishing guides for the successful territorial float/fishing/camping excursion on Elk River.

Significant content for the book was derived from an unpublished territorial journal kept by and inherited from the author's father, Ralph Pogue, as well as a large collection of photographs Ralph took as Territorial Press Secretary. In addition to its rich historical accounting of this event, the book offers a detailed list of key players in the breakaway. The author adds personal anecdotes about some of them and recalls poignant, lively and humorous accounts of colorful unforgettable characters residing in McDonald Territory at that time.

1961 Breakaway takes the reader back to a time of pristine wilderness and natural abundance when No Trespassing signs were rare and people were connected to people as they depended on each other in so many ways, not the least of which may have been simply for wellbeing.

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