Michigan is the only state in the country with two distinct peninsulas. How did it come to be this way?
We share an episode of the Points North podcast that digs into the history of our state's boundary lines. They story of our peninsula "up north" actually begins with a boundary dispute down south - in Ohio.
Popular legend says a fur trapper showed Ohio politicians that their original borders excluded a critical port by the Maumee River. Politicians shifted their northern border just slightly to include the port.
A couple decades later, Stephens T. Mason, governor of what was then the Michigan territory, began to push for statehood. He fought to include the mouth of the Maumee River, the port, and the connected trade route within Michigan's border.
Mason enacted the Pains and Penalties Act, which criminalized Ohioans acting as though the territory in dispute belonged to Ohio. Several Ohioans were arrested. The disagreement broke into a dispute now known as the Toledo War, sometimes called the Michigan-Ohio War.
Eventually, Congress stepped in and offered Michigan statehood, as well as the western portion of the Upper Peninsula, in exchange for the territory now known as the Toledo Strip. Michigan officials reluctantly agreed, as the U.P. was believed to be of no value at the time. It later proved to be an economic asset, with plentiful copper mines and tourism.
- Find a full transcript of the original Points North episode here
- Check out more episodes of Points North from Interlochen Public Radio
GUESTS:
- Ryan Schnurr, producer, assistant professor in the Department of Humanities and Communication at Trine University
- Ted Long, author, local historian, and storyteller based in Toledo, OH
- Marty Herschock, professor of history at the University of Michigan-Dearborn
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