Given an electoral map posted with a POD in the 1600s(!) that included Nevada with the exact OTL borders (and a capital of Carson City), I started thinking about after what the latest date a POD would be reasonable that would still end up with OTL State borders.
My personal limit is the end of OTL Civil War, by that time only changes that lead to OTL State borders in the Lower 48 are Nevada's growth at the expense of Utah and Arizona, the creation of Wyoming Territory/State with the resultant change to Idaho's boundaries and the splitting of the Dakotas. All of these seem *possible* to happen as in OTL. Hawaii as a state and Alaska with the boundary decision as in OTL also seem entirely possible.
I'm not sure it is possible to go back much farther than that because of one state: West Virginia. The history of the secession of West Virginia/Kanawha *and* the Virginia counties that actually join it seem *so* likely to change due to butterflies in the US Civil War that I just can't see everything working out.
Ideas?
My personal limit is the end of OTL Civil War, by that time only changes that lead to OTL State borders in the Lower 48 are Nevada's growth at the expense of Utah and Arizona, the creation of Wyoming Territory/State with the resultant change to Idaho's boundaries and the splitting of the Dakotas. All of these seem *possible* to happen as in OTL. Hawaii as a state and Alaska with the boundary decision as in OTL also seem entirely possible.
I'm not sure it is possible to go back much farther than that because of one state: West Virginia. The history of the secession of West Virginia/Kanawha *and* the Virginia counties that actually join it seem *so* likely to change due to butterflies in the US Civil War that I just can't see everything working out.
Ideas?