In May of 1972, Richard Montgomery of Southern Oregon College and Roy Ryden of Humboldt State College, dismayed by the pre-internet isolation of their campuses from the mathematical centers of the Willamette Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area, organized the Weaverville Mathematics Congress. This Congress, attended by 12 members of SOC and HSC, resolved to reconvene annually to "share and discuss current ideas on mathematics, applications, and curricular directions." The following year the Congress convened at Lake Whiskeytown, which became its permanent home, and a name was chosen to represent the geographical region and the spirit of independence of that region from the population centers of the respective states: "The State of Jefferson Mathematics Congress."
The Congress flourished; faculty from other campuses joined in; and the effort received national recognition with the 1997 appearance of a one-page note in the American Mathematical Monthly. (1)
There were occasional changes. New generations of organizers were appointed. In 1997 the Congress was permanently moved from May to October. The 2008 and 2020 Congresses were canceled; the first by unseasonable and severe rain and the second by the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2013 the Congress was relocated to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park by a shutdown of the Federal Government; in 2018 and 2019 it met at Lake Siskiyou because of the aftermath of a severe forest fire at Whiskeytown. A complete list of the Congress's programs is available on the "Archive" page of this site.
By the 2020's, however, the sobriquet "State of Jefferson," formerly used by a defunct and discredited political movement of the 1940's, had become loosely identified with a modern group of anti-government protestors. In view of the climate of political divisiveness which seems to have gripped the country, and not willing to be misidentified as being allied with this group, in 2021 the organizers adopted the new name "Whiskeytown Lake Mathematics Congress."
Eadem mutata resurgo. (2)
(1) American Mathematical Monthly. Vol 86. Issue 3 (Mar 1979) p.216. [reprint]
(2) Wikipedia: "Eadem_mutata_resurgo" [screen capture 2021/08/22]