Article Principality of Outer Baldonia
Type: Fictitious Country.
Summary: The Principality of Outer Baldonia started as a practical joke among friends on a fishing trip and it became a country.
Posted by: Elliot Feldman
Russell Arundel was an executive with the Pepsi-Cola Company. He was also a well-known eccentric. In 1948, he purchased the four-acre Outer Bald Tusket Island off the coast of Nova Scotia for $750. It was located in one of the world’s great fishing waters.
“The Principality of Outer Baldonia”
During a drinking reverie with friends on a fishing trip, he renamed the island “The Principality of Outer Baldonia”, declaring himself “the Prince of Princes.” He then wrote a “Declaration of Independence of Outer Baldonia”, and created a crest for the newly formed country.
To almost seal the deal, Arundel built a stone fishing shack on the island.
Russell Arundel
At home in Washington DC, Arundel placed a listing for the Principality of Outer Baldonia “consulate” in the DC phonebook. He attended United Nations cocktail parties dressed in a princely sash and royal costume allegedly decorated with bottle caps and sardine cans. In fact, during the beginnings of the UN, Outer Baldonia was actually invited to apply for membership.
The War with the USSR
Not every member of the United Nations “got the joke.” The Soviet Union’s official state publication, The Literary Gazette, sharply criticized the Principality’s published “charter.” In response, Arundel declared war on the USSR.
Members of a nearby yacht club threatened to send out “their fleet” if there was a Soviet invasion of Outer Baldonia.
Outer Baldonia Today
In 1973, Russell Arundel sold the island to the Nova Scotia Bird Society for one Canadian dollar.
A sidenote: In 1953, Russell Arundel gained another sort of notoriety when he was accused of buying influence for Pepsi with infamous Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy.
