Minnesota, the American Siberia

Zajir

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/01/magazine/minneapolis-no-more-mr-nice-guy.html?pagewanted=all
THE HEADHUNTERS SAY that nobody ever wants to come to Minneapolis, and that once here, nobody ever wants to leave. It's inarguably cold, this distant outpost - a remote corner of flyover land in the heart of the heart of the country. But Minneapolitans do not merely endure this American Siberia, they thrive in it.
Click to expand...

AHC Challenge: Make Minnesota be well known as a place of mass deporations, labor colonies, prisons etc. similar to Siberias, sometimes unjust, reputation.
 

matashowski

Eh, Minnesota is a bit too close to the major population to become our Siberia. The point was the sheer amount of distance, not just the cold/desolation. If the US were building camps, we would probably stick people up in Alaska, or out in the desert.

Or Hawaii, if we are concentrating the rich.
 

Caesar Biden

Banned
You're saying it isn't? The only reason Minnesotans never voted for Reagan is because this is where he exiled all of his political opponents.:p

In all reality, this isn't going to happen. Minnesota would already be fairly inhabited by the time any gulags would start, and isn't isolated enough to prevent political opponents from rising back up. Alaska or parts of conquered Canada (Hey, we're assuming a nasty dictatorship) would work much better than anything here.
 

Dunning Kruger

Minnesota is the start of the Mississippi River and a port to Lake Superior at Duluth. It has a lot of farmland and logging land. And the summers there are gorgeous so enough tourism to keep people going through even some of the remote areas. It's just not remote enough to make it a Siberian equivalent. The best you could do in the lower 48 is Nevada or perhaps North Dakota or Montana. Nevada is your best bet.
 

Alt History Buff

One possibility is that Minnesota would become a "Trail of Tears" destination for various Indian groups rather than Oklahoma.

A "Siberia" for Indians.

Culturally (without major, major American History butterflies), this would be difficult for American prisoners.

Another alternative is that the ARW never occurs or Britain retains the Northwest Territory in the ARW or War of 1812 and uses this in place of Australia (may Australia is already claimed by France or the Netherlands or something).

Best I can think of.
 

dissentcontinues

Banned
Also "National Homeland One" the Bantustan where the 700 Club Moral Majority dictatorship of Gilead in the Handmaid's Tale deports (or maybe massacres) all African American people is in North Dakota.
 

Caesar Biden

Banned
Alt History Buff said:
One possibility is that Minnesota would become a "Trail of Tears" destination for various Indian groups rather than Oklahoma.

A "Siberia" for Indians.

Culturally (without major, major American History butterflies), this would be difficult for American prisoners.

Another alternative is that the ARW never occurs or Britain retains the Northwest Territory in the ARW or War of 1812 and uses this in place of Australia (may Australia is already claimed by France or the Netherlands or something).

Best I can think of.
Click to expand...

Nah, the Southern third of Minnesota is actually really good farmland. It's unlikely that the Federal Government would give the head of the Mississippi, a region that could be very valuable, to the Amerindians.
 

dissentcontinues

Banned
I'd been sent to Knife Lake. I'd been caught distributing "subversive propaganda" by the Joint Chiefs of Staff junta and been shipped out after a secret night time tribunal. It was the dead of winter and this place is supposed to be full of Norwegian and Swedish people that think they're Vikings and Vikings said hell was cold.

The lake was pretty far from anywhere in Minnesota and there was a blizzard pretty regularly. But damned if I hadn't decided to escape.

I had no clue what was happening since the Joint Chiefs overthrew Jack Kennedy, and maybe the rest of the country was going to hell of the hotter kind, but no way I was staying here.

I tunneled under a barbed wire fence when the guards were asleep. It took me weeks. Digging. With my hands. Couple times the tunnel collapsed and I had to shower real quick so nobody saw the dirt and shit on me and realized what I was up to.

One morning, I came up like a gopher from under a snow drift. I coughed and the snow packing stung my face. Bullets started flying from the guard tower almost immediately, but I rolled and then dove into a snowed in thicket and into some woods. I was gonna make it to Canada.

I trudged through the snow clear to Route 35 and the town of Pine City and knocked on a door.

"Hi. Got stuck out in the cold. Any chance I might get some food and spend the night?"

A family of blonde folks greeted me.

"Hi there. Sure can. You come out of that there camp? Don'cha worry champ. We're Minnesota Farmer-Labor party voters and we don't much like the army running out the President. We'll get you some pop and lutefisk and hitch you a ride to the border"

I would make it
 

Dunning Kruger

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan could actually fill this role. I grew up in Wisconsin about an hour from the southeastern part of it. It is remote!
 

cra0422

Minnesota is on the Mississippi river and connects to the Great Lakes, so you've got instant water transportation right there. If you want to exile someone in this country, I'd pick North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming or Idaho for the continental US, but Alaska would be even better.
 

Pesterfield

Perhaps get the orphan train idea expanded to adults? The best way to deal with the criminal lower classes is to get them out of the cities. That needs to wait for the railroad though to be really effective.

How could we get internal exile favored over execution or long prison sentences?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top