Why doesn't the chunk of land called the Upper Peninsula of Michigan belong to Wisconsin instead of Michigan? It seems to make more geographical sense. Take a look at the map and see what you think...
And then we learned about the Toledo War.
The Toledo War? That was a new one for us! From what we understand, the Toledo War (also known as the Ohio-Michigan War) was a bloodless boundary dispute in 1835-1836 between the state of Ohio and what was at that time the adjoining territory of Michigan. Both Ohio and Michigan claimed a 468 square mile bit of land along their border (now known as the Toledo Strip). Both sides actually mobilized militias during this "war", but the only shots fired were into the air.
By December of 1836, the Michigan territorial government was in dire financial straits and ready to make a deal. Michigan accepted the following compromise: they gave up their claim to the Toledo Strip in exchange for statehood and the Upper Peninsula.
Who knew?
At the time, the Upper Peninsula was considered a worthless wilderness, so it appeared that Ohio was the winner of the Toledo War. But when copper was discovered in the Keweenaw Peninsula of the Upper Peninsula, and iron was discovered in the western U.P., well, that certainly more than compensated for the loss of the Toledo Strip.
Ironically, had Michigan not lost the Toledo Strip, the Upper Peninsula would most likely have become part of Wisconsin when it became a state in 1848.
This was but a very brief summary of what happened during the Toledo War, but I just had to share some of it with you. This is one of the reasons why Art and I love to travel...we learn so much about things we never even knew we didn't know anything about. ;-D
--- Barbara
Day 47
Total miles: 5,212
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