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The History of the Lost Peninsula
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Lost Peninsula is a small part of Michigan that
became separated because of the 1835 Toledo
War, changing the Michigan/Ohio Boundary. It was
also the staging area for rum runners, bringing illegal
spirits into the United States from Canada.
The Toledo
War
The Toledo War (1835–1836; also known as the
Ohio-Michigan War) was the largely bloodless outcome of a
boundary dispute between the U.S. state of Ohio and the
adjoining territory of Michigan. The dispute originated from
conflicting state and federal legislation, passed between 1787
and 1805, which left Ohio's northern border uncertain. The
governments of Ohio and Michigan both claimed sovereignty over
a 468 square mile (1,210 sq km) region along the border, now
known as the Toledo Strip. When Michigan pressed for statehood
in the early 1830s, it sought to include the disputed
territory within its boundaries, but Ohio's Congressional
delegation was able to halt Michigan's admission to the
Union.
Beginning in 1835, both sides passed legislation
meant to force the other side's capitulation. Ohio's governor
Robert Lucas and Michigan's then 24-year-old "boy governor"
Stevens T. Mason were both unwilling to cede jurisdiction of
the Strip, so they raised militias and helped institute
criminal penalties for citizens submitting to the other
state's authority. Both militias were mobilized and sent to
positions on opposite sides of the Maumee River near Toledo,
but there was little interaction between the two sides besides
mutual taunting. The single military confrontation of the
"war" ended with a report of shots being fired into the air,
incurring no casualties. There was only one serious injury in
the entire conflict: the stabbing of a Michigan deputy sheriff
involved in the arrest of a partisan Ohio family.
In
December 1836, the Michigan territorial government, facing a
dire financial crisis, surrendered the land under pressure
from Congress and President Andrew Jackson, and accepted a
proposed resolution adopted in the U.S. Congress. Under the
compromise, Michigan gave up its claim to the strip in
exchange for its statehood and approximately three-quarters of
the Upper Peninsula. Considered a poor outcome for Michigan at
the time, the later discovery of copper and the plentiful
timber in the Upper Peninsula more than compensated for the
loss of the strip.
From
Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia |
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