Highway 49

This is perfect! A really nice one.

Thanks!

Awesome perspective!

Admired in:
www.ipernity.com/group/tolerance

Thanks, everyone!

I've been through there, it definitely feels like an entirely different state from the rest of California.

Yeah, I'd bet they'd secede and join Nevada in a heartbeat if they could! ;) We've spent a fair amount of time in that area simply because it is so convenient to where we live.

I think that's one of the areas that wants to join with Oregon and form "Jefferson" -- don't know why they're not more familiar with the future home of Tesla's battery plant...

California east of the Sierra crest has traditionally looked toward Nevada. Geographical proximity is part of it, of course--if you live in Susanville or Mammoth you go to Reno to find the big malls. But there's also a political kinship--they definitely feel alienated from the big cities! Traditionally, too, UNR had a "good neighbor" policy where students from California east of the Sierra got a tuition break. Dunno if that's been a casualty of the budget cuts.
Rationally, of course, the political boundary should have been drawn at the crest. The explorer John Wesley Powell, also a co-founder of the USGS, said that state lines should be set at watershed boundaries. He said something to the effect of, "You can make work for surveyors or for lawyers." Well, of course Congress made work for lawyers--this is America, after all! But apparently California, when it applied for statehood, wanted the whole Sierra block because they were convinced the whole range overlay the Mother Lode!

I understand the issue of feeling cut off from the rest of the state, particularly the influences of the urban areas. And, it makes sense to have more affinity with Nevada since Reno is the most accessible city. But they seem to be aligning with the "Jefferson" movement:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_(proposed_Pacific_state)

Perhaps they don't want to swap being dominated by California cities for being dominated by Vegas! ;) Vegas is the 400 lb gorilla in Nevada politics, and lots of folks up north haven't gotten over the rise of the upstart down south!

I was thinking the same thing, based on what I've heard from the people in Lincoln county over the years.

Seems that most states have those sorts of divides and battles. Even when I was young, Florida was a political battle between the north (which is part of the cultural South) and the resort/retiree portion of the state that is south of what is now I-4.

Indeed. We sure saw the conflicts when we lived in Washington--not so much the (dry) east vs. the (wet) west, but the Seattle-Tacoma conurbation vs. the rest of the state! Oregon's much the same--a Canadian acquaintance once mentioned that Oregon was supposed to the most "Canadian" state, according to some article he'd read, and I said that might be true if you looked only at Portland and maybe the college towns in the Willamette valley. Outside those areas, it's as red (in the new, Republican sense) as anywhere else in the Mountain West!

Of course, back east the upstate-downstate tension in New York is legendary--the city vs. the rest of the state!

Have you read Joel Garreau's _The Nine Nations of North America_? It came out back in the 80s, but it's still just as relevant today. The thesis is how different regional economies and even attitudes ignore the political boundaries.

Read a book? I've been a college professor, we didn't have time to read books.... I keep planning to start now that I'm retired, but haven't yet. Sounds like as good a book to start with as any considering the issues of national/state boundaries that never go away.

My sense from when I lived in the Northeast in the 80's was that those sorts of divides, while real, were not as strong as they are in parts of the west -- probably due to the back-and-forth from resorts, summer cottages, farms, colleges, etc. I also seem to recall there being more interaction around NV, particularly between Reno and LV, in the 70's and 80's than there is now. It does seem that the culture is becoming more insular. (Florida, though, had none of that -- those of us in N. Fla were oriented to and interacted with Ga or Ala, not south Florida. Those in south Florida just hurried through N. Fla., avoiding contact.)

I can think of several similar divisions in Eastern states that would be every bit as strong as Western examples: the left-leaning, industrial North of Cleveland vs. the right-leaning "South will rise again" of Cincinnati; southeast Michigan vs. the rural country and the entire Upper Peninsula; urban Chicago vs. the rest of Illinois. Kentucky manages three separate entities, with Appalachia coal separated from Western Kentucky tobacco country by the wealthier, more urban zone locals call the Golden Triangle (all the space between Louisville, Lexington, and the Cincinnati suburbs), which dominates the other two while usually forgetting either exists. I think California's unique not so much in the strength of these division but in their number. The place is so large with so many topographical barriers, it feels like it really could be five or six states.

Interesting. And I'm sure Californians agree! ;)

I can identify with that! Keep the caffeine content up...........

That is one long road, with great depth, good pic.... & you can't see another soul !!!
Thanks for your visit & comments !!

Thanks, everyone! There wasn't a lot of danger getting this pic ;)

Great perspective in this vast landscape.

Thanks!

My kind of place, too. No one around.

If you ignore the hamlet of Loyalton which is over my left shoulder ;) But there's not much traffic!

Wow sure is open and straight nice capture, the comments to this image are very interesting

Thanks! More about US domestic politics than you really wanted to know, no doubt ;)

Same in the whole of the civilised I guess.

Yeah, the flats here are all private ranchland. I don't see development happening anytime soon, tho, because there are more attractive areas in California, and no one is going to commute from Nevada because of California taxes! There's a real sharp boundary at the state line outside Reno--you can probably see it on air photos!

Great photo and I enjoyed the discussion as much as the picture.