AHC: How can Nebraska be the No 1 state?
- Thread starter Jimbo808
- Start date
Make it a California sized state stretching up the Mississippi from the Gulf to Lake Michigan
Population, Population, Population...That is what makes the #1 state.
You also need a legislature capable of opening up regulations and stop heavy taxes (NE cell phone taxes are the highest in the country in order to subsidize farmers). NE doesn't have a good track record on developing new power systems since it is uses a state run electric/gas grid...which means they are protectionist against innovation (just look at the windmill industry here in NE compared to the huge numbers in Iowa and the Dakota's).
You also need a legislature capable of opening up regulations and stop heavy taxes (NE cell phone taxes are the highest in the country in order to subsidize farmers). NE doesn't have a good track record on developing new power systems since it is uses a state run electric/gas grid...which means they are protectionist against innovation (just look at the windmill industry here in NE compared to the huge numbers in Iowa and the Dakota's).
Here’s my solution. So in the 1850s, there was a smell movement, mostly promoted by future Ag Secretary and Arbor Day Founder J. Sterling Morton that wanted Nebraska south of the Platte River to join Kansas. If this were to happen, I’m guessing Nebraska would be the state stretching from the Platte to the latitude the Wyoming Montana border is at, while Dakota would be the state north of that line.
As a result, Kansas would gain mostly agricultural land, with the largest town being Lancaster ( otl Lincoln) which is a town of about 20,000 and has a small state college but that’s it.
Meanwhile, Nebraska, now including half of South Dakota, had both agrarian and mineral wealth, and Omaha becomes a much bigger transportation help. You also see the Capitol moved closer to the western part of the territory. My money would be on Yankton as it was the Dakota territorial Capitol. Thus it’s a bit larger in otl with about 50,000 people. It also serves as a rail terminus for points west like the Black Hills (now mostly in Nebraska) and points west. You’d still need city leaders in Omaha to do better but maybe with a more diverse economy, they’d do okay.
As for Dakota. It’s mostly just otl North Dakota with towns like Aberdeen and Watertown added. It’d still have oil but that’s it.
As a result, Kansas would gain mostly agricultural land, with the largest town being Lancaster ( otl Lincoln) which is a town of about 20,000 and has a small state college but that’s it.
Meanwhile, Nebraska, now including half of South Dakota, had both agrarian and mineral wealth, and Omaha becomes a much bigger transportation help. You also see the Capitol moved closer to the western part of the territory. My money would be on Yankton as it was the Dakota territorial Capitol. Thus it’s a bit larger in otl with about 50,000 people. It also serves as a rail terminus for points west like the Black Hills (now mostly in Nebraska) and points west. You’d still need city leaders in Omaha to do better but maybe with a more diverse economy, they’d do okay.
As for Dakota. It’s mostly just otl North Dakota with towns like Aberdeen and Watertown added. It’d still have oil but that’s it.
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Get rid of the early idea that the land of the American heartland was unusable for anything due to the land being unplowable. Have a reason for people to move their major gold rush and then lots of coal, steel, and oil inside the state.
You go up to your local Subway and the take the S out of "Sub" and the F out of "way".
That's going to be very difficult with a post-1900 POD. But with an earlier POD I would suggest moving the US capital there. One way this could happen is if the South wins the Civil War and the national capital moves out of Washington, D.C. out of necessity in the event the city ends up part of an independent Confederacy. Another way would be if the capital never moves from New York (or Philadelphia) to Washington, D.C. in the first place and a movement springs up in the late 19th Century to move the capital to a more central location.
Crazy Boris
Banned
The only way I can see this happening is if you shuffle around the names of states so that Nebraska isn't what we call Nebraska, but is now the name for California, Texas, or New York
Nebraska's central location might arguably make it more important if:
1) External threats/wars caused the country to want to pull back from the coasts
and/or
2) The government intentionally picked a capital city in the center of the country to bind east, west, north and south together, for proximity to all areas, etc.
1) External threats/wars caused the country to want to pull back from the coasts
and/or
2) The government intentionally picked a capital city in the center of the country to bind east, west, north and south together, for proximity to all areas, etc.
That would be quite a challenge when Denver, Memphis, and St. Louis exist and have geographical advantages.
I don't think that Denver does. Sure, it's on the South Platte, giving it nice water resources, but Omaha is on the Missouri!
Denver is up against the mountains, meaning that while it's well-placed for the vast quantity of transport from New Mexico to Montana, there's not much going East-West through the city. And past the Rockies is the Great Basin. And past that are the Sierras. And then you get to California. In contrast, Omaha is on the route that the Transcontinental Railroad would take, and the Oregon Trail before it. The path goes through much milder mountains, and mostly heads north of the Great Basin. It's really a natural stopping-point on any trip from East to West (or vice-versa), much more than Denver.
I love Denver, but aside from being closer to a few gold and silver rushes, I see no particular advantage to it. And those are of course short-lived. To be honest, I'm a little surprised that Denver didn't atrophy after the mines played out; maybe because the silver mines tended to last longer - most of them only got played out in the 50s and 60s.
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