On to Idaho

The eastern border of Idaho starts out straight in the southern part, then it gets all squiggly, then it straightens out again in the northern part. If it had maintained its straightness all the way north, then Wyoming and Montana would have been approximately the same size, and Idaho would have been almost as big as both of them put together. The Idaho legislature proposed that the eastern border follow the Continental Divide instead because it was a natural barrier that would inhibit travel and trade, especially in the winter. It might have ended up that way too, if it wasn't for that one guy.

Sidney Edgerton was a former congressman from Ohio who had some influential friends in Washington, D.C. These friends helped him get a judicial appointment in Idaho when it was still a territory. The territorial governor was apparently not impressed with Edgerton's Washington connections and assigned him to a judgeship east of the Rockies, which was kind of like the boondocks of Idaho Territory. Edgerton saw a chance to get even when both Idaho and Montana applied for statehood, and Montana hired him to represent their interests. Edgerton set out for Washington with a suitcase full of money and, when he returned, the border between Idaho and Montana had mysteriously moved from the crest of the Rockies to the crest of the Bitterroot Mountains, a considerable distance to the west. This is why the map makes it look like Montana bit off a big chunk of Idaho which, in a manner of speaking, it did. The fact that the border straightens out at the northern end gives Idaho some valuable agricultural land in the Kootenai River watershed as a consolation prize. The book doesn't say who was responsible for that, but it probably wasn't Sidney Edgerton.

Kansas and Nebraska came out the way they did largely because of the slavery issue. Nebraska wanted to come in as a free state, and it was assumed that Kansas would come in as a slave state, preserving the precarious balance that might forestall the looming Civil War. The people of Kansas weren't so sure about that and they fought their own little civil war to settle the issue. The survivors eventually did bring Kansas in as a free state.

Nebraska also had issues with some Indians and some gold miners, both of which were deemed to be unsuitable neighbors for the righteous farmers and ranchers of Nebraska. They got rid of the Indians the usual way, and they got rid of the miners by giving their corner of the state to Colorado.