Although the boundaries of the State of Jefferson have eluded political
demarcation, it is generally agreed that this region encompasses sizable
portions of northern California and southern Oregon and sometimes includes
a thin strip of northwestern Nevada. As early as 1852 and as recently as
1941, bonds of common interests and mutual disenchantments prompted serious
attempts to establish the Sate of Jefferson as a political reality. Traces
of those endeavors remain. Since 1972 mathematicians from this region, in
an endeavor to overcome the geographical isolation of their institutions
from other centers of mathematical activity, have been meeting annually
to share and discuss current ideas on mathematics, applications, and curricular
directions.