Holy Toledo

 

  I asked a man once what part of Michigan he was from. He held up his hand and pointed to a spot on the thumb and named a town I'd never heard of. At least now I knew about where that town was. "Michigan is shaped like a mitten," he said. That didn't take account of the Upper Peninsula, or UP, as residents call it. The UP appears to be a part of Wisconsin or even Ontario rather than Michigan. How come Michigan ended up with it?

  It goes back to the Toledo War (1835-6) fought between the militias of the state of Ohio and the territory of Michigan over a strip of land known as the Toledo Strip. Ohio had become a state in 1803. Ohio assumed its northern boundary included the city of Toledo and several miles of the Maumee River at the west end of Lake Erie. Due to a poor understanding of the geography of the Great Lakes at the time, Ohio was in danger of losing Toledo and four hundred square miles of fertile farmland if Michigan's boundary claims were accepted by Congress when Michigan became a state.

  Ohio was able to hold up Michigan's admission as a state while it tried to make sure it retained Toledo and the land in the strip. Michigan was in no mood to give in. It had already had part of its southern territory sliced off so Indiana could have a shoreline on Lake Michigan off to the west. Settlers from Michigan started moving into the disputed area and setting up local government.

 Michigan's "Boy Governor" Stevens Mason, age 24, put the territorial militia on alert. Mason was later elected governor when Michigan became a state, and remains the youngest person ever elected a state governor. Historians also remember him as a hothead.  Ohio also called up its militia and the opposing militias camped on opposite sides of the Maumee River and hurled insults at each other. 

  About this time President Jackson got involved before anyone got hurt. He needed Ohio's Congressional votes for his programs so he favored Ohio's claims. He sent representatives to Ohio who ordered a new survey of the border and said the settlers in the strip should vote to decide which state they wanted to be in. 

 Governor Mason said no to this deal and sent militiamen to harass the surveyors. The surveyors claimed they were fired upon. The militiamen said they only fired in the air to frighten off the surveyors. The only bloodshed in the war occurred when a Michigan sheriff attempted to arrest an Ohio partisan and his family. The Ohio man's son stabbed the sheriff with a penknife and disappeared into the woods. The sheriff was fine.

  President Jackson said he would give Michigan the whole Upper Peninsula and push for its statehood if Michigan would give up its claim to the Toledo Strip. Governor Mason again said no. The UP was considered a worthless country of stones and ice. Jackson removed Mason, but the people of Michigan hung his replacement in effigy and re-elected Mason.

  Michigan was spending so much money maintaining its militia that it was near bankruptcy. Jackson offered an infusion of cash if Michigan gave up Toledo and took the UP. Michigan finally agreed, but grumbled about the worthless land up north. When copper was discovered a few years later, the UP looked like a great deal. I just wonder now why Isle Royale in Lake Superior is part of Michigan and not Minnesota or even Ontario.

  

Call up the Minnesota Coast Guard!