I'm not originally from Minnesota, so I don't know if the story of the
Republic of Kinney is common knowledge to Minnesota natives or not. I only learned of the story of Kinney this week, and I couldn't believe I'd never heard it before! The story of a small Minnesota community that took matters into its own hands, theirs is the stuff of legends and -- I think -- the kind of story that ought to be taught in every Minnesota history class!
According to Atlast Obscura, Kinney (pop. 192 in 2019) was established in 1910 as a "makeshift mining town." Only designed to support the population working the local iron mines, an unexpected population boom quickly took a toll on Kinney's already-weak infrastructure. The municipal water system, especially, felt the strain, but every attempt to secure federal funds to upgrade the system met a wall of red tape. Frustrated, the locals meeting at Mary's Bar -- a tavern owned by then-Mayor Mary Anderson -- began to joke, "If we can't get domestic aid, maybe we should just secede from the Union and apply for foreign aid!" Over time, the ridiculous idea began to sound more appealing, and on July 13, 1977 the little village of Kinney, Minnesota sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance announcing that they would be seceding from the United States and becoming a foreign country forthwith known as the