1836 Michigan Map

From the Encyclopaedia Britannica: Michigan was anxious for statehood so that it might undertake a more ambitious program of internal improvements. The first constitution was enacted in 1835, but statehood was delayed until 1837 by the so-called Toledo War, a boundary dispute with Ohio. The “war” centred on what was known as the Toledo Strip, a narrow piece of land on the southern Michigan border that ran westward from Toledo (on Lake Erie) to the Indiana border. According to the Ordinance of 1787, which had established the Northwest Territory, the land should have gone to Michigan. Ohio claimed the land based on earlier, albeit inaccurate, surveys, however, because it wanted Toledo—the planned terminus of the Miami and Erie canals. In the end, Michigan relinquished its claims to Toledo and to the mouth of the Maumee River. In return, Michigan was awarded the western Upper Peninsula. (A small, eastern segment of the Upper Peninsula had already been part of Michigan Territory.) Although initially the agreement was widely scorned as an unequal exchange, it ultimately proved a boon for Michigan, which inherited the vast copper and iron riches of the Upper Peninsula.