Did You Know Michigan Won the UP in a War With Ohio?

That's right, friends, in 1835, the Michigan Territory went to war with the state of Ohio. One could make the argument that the hostility continues to this day, but the conflict was officially over in 1836.

Let's look at 10 fun facts about the great, the infamous Toledo War and Michigan's grueling fight for statehood.

1. People in the 18th Century Were Bad With Geography

When the United States first formed, it was decided that the Northwest Territory (now the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota) would eventually be divided into between three and five states. One of the borders for these future states would run east-west from the southern tip of Lake Michigan.

The problem was, no one knew exactly where that was, and if you look at Michigan's southern border today, this is made abundantly clear. The southern most bend of Lake Michigan is fully within the borders of Indiana. (And if you continue east, the border takes a jog south before continuing as the border with Ohio.) But it isn't Indiana that Michigan went to war with.

The best maps of the time put the southern point of Lake Michigan on par with the mouth of the Detroit River. So, it was assumed, one could simply draw a border from the southern tip of Lake Michigan straight east to the mouth of the Detroit River, easy peasy. This would have placed the entirety of the southern Lake Erie shoreline within this territory included in what would soon become the state of Ohio. (For the record, the northern shore is in Canada.)

2. Ohio Really Didn't Want to Give Up Toledo

When Ohio headed for statehood in 1803, the framers of the Ohio constitution built in a caveat that should Lake Michigan and the Detroit River turn out not to line up, the border would be adjusted to angle up to include the Maumee River watershed within Ohio's borders. Ohio really did not want to give up any of its Lake Erie shoreline.

When the Michigan Territory was created two years later, this caveat was not taken into consideration, thus creating two definitions of the Michigan-Ohio border. This meant that the "location" of the Port of Miami (now Toledo) was in question. Was it part of Ohio or Michigan?

It wasn't until 1812 that Congress was finally persuaded to solve the matter with an official survey. But, it being 1812, there was a war on, and the survey was delayed until 1816, after Indiana attained its statehood.

The man in charge of the survey was employed by a former Ohio governor, and he used the criteria set forth by the Ohio constitution to establish the border, which, unsurprisingly, ticked off the territorial governor of Michigan.

3. Michigan Really Wanted the Maumee River

In retaliation, Michigan launched its own survey using the criteria as originally set down by Congress. Surprise, surprise, it determined that the real border ran south of the Maumee River. Thus the Toledo Strip was born, the land that fell between these two surveys.

In 1825, the Erie Canal was completed, and there were plans to continue building canals and to connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River. Detroit was located too far north, and therefore out of the way, to be a convenient stopping point when traveling from the East Coast west to Indiana and Illinois (this is still true, unless you go through Canada), while the mouth of the Maumee in Lake Erie was considered perfect. This area was also a prime region for agriculture, a big deal at the time.

4. Ohio Blocked Michigan From Becoming a State

In the 1820s, Michigan finally passed the minimum 60,000 population threshold to become a state, and in 1833 attempted to do so. There was just that little matter of the Toledo Strip to work out first.

Yes, the dispute over the border with Ohio was preventing Michigan's statehood. And because Ohio accepted their version of the border as just plain fact, they refused to negotiate the matter. The Michigan citizens (or people who considered themselves so) living in the region were viewed as intruders by Ohio.

In fact, Ohio was so annoyed by Michigan that the Ohio Congressional delegation lobbied other states to deny Michigan's statehood. And to add insult to injury, Ohio began setting up county governments within the Strip while Michigan continued to struggle to establish a legitimate constitutional convention.

Michigan retaliated in February of 1835 with the Pains and Penalties Act, which said that any Ohio supporters within the Strip could be fined up to $1,000 or imprisoned for up to five years. A militia of 1,000 men was assembled and stationed in the Strip.

Naturally, Ohio raised a militia of its own and also sent it to the strip. The war for control of Toledo had begun.

5. This is How Michigan Became the Wolverine State

Anyone who follows college football likely knows that the University of Michigan's mascot is the wolverine. And one of the state's monikers is the Wolverine State. And this isn't because of a high wolverine population. Or any wolverine population. People aren't even sure if wolverines are native to the peninsulas.

In the 1800s, wolverines had a reputation for being smelly (they are sometimes called skunk bears), vicious, and cunning. Wolverines are not afraid to take on animals larger than themselves. Just like the people from Michigan! Or so thought the people of Ohio.

Evidently, not everyone was bothered by the insult. The students of the University of Michigan have been referring to themselves as wolverines since at least the 1860s.

6. There Were Some Big Players Involved

Then Congressman John Quincy Adams (yes, the former president) opined, "Never in the course of my life have I known a controversy of which all the right was so clearly on one side and all the power so overwhelmingly on the other." He backed Michigan.

President Andrew Jackson, however, needed Ohio, a swing state, to back his nascent Democratic Party (now the oldest existing political party in the United States). He sent representatives to Toledo to attempt to find a solution to this, up till then, bloodless feud.

There were several skirmishes, arrests, more surveys, and legislation passed on both sides. Prisoners were taken. And Michigan drafted its State Constitution during the early summer of 1835.

7. No One Was Shot, But Someone Was Stabbed

On July 15, 1835, Michigan Deputy Sheriff Joseph Wood went to the Toledo home of Major Benjamin Stickney to arrest him for voting in an Ohio election. The Stickneys resisted, resulting in the entire family being taken in. Major Stickney had two sons, named One and Two (yes, really). Two Stickney stabbed Wood (nonfatally) with a pocketknife before fleeing.

The governor of Ohio, Robert Lucas (for whom the county Toledo is now located in was named), refused to extradite Two to Michigan to stand trial. Stevens Mason, Michigan's governor, asked President Jackson for help, suggesting it was a matter for the Supreme Court. Since it hadn't yet been decided if the Supreme Court had jurisdiction in such matters, Jackson declined.

8. President Jackson Removed Michigan's Governor

Remember, Jackson was on Ohio's side because he wanted those votes, so at Lucas's request, he removed Mason as Michigan's governor and appointed John Horner. Because Michigan was not recognized by the federal government as a state, Jackson could do that.

But it didn't make Michigan, nor Mason, very happy. Before Horner could take the post, Mason sent 1,000 militiamen into Toledo, a popular move amongst Michganders. Horner, meanwhile, was burned in effigy.

That October, Michigan adopted its constitution and elected Mason as governor. Michigan's first U.S. Representative and two U.S. Senators were rejected by Congress and not allowed to vote. The senators had to sit in the gallery.

9. The Upper Peninsula Was a Bribe

Having had enough, President Jackson signed a bill on June 15, 1836 that would grant Michigan statehood, but only if they gave up the Toledo Strip. To sweeten the pot, Michigan was offered the remaining three-quarters or so of what is now the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) but at the time was part of the Wisconsin Territory. Believing this land worthless, Michigan rejected the deal. (It was also not so easy to get to since the Mackinac Bridge would not be built until 1957.)

However, maintaining militias isn't cheap, and Michigan was quickly running out of money. When they learned that the U.S. Treasury was readying to disperse a surplus of funds to the states but not the territories, a highly contentious second convention was called and Jackson's deal reconsidered.

On December 14, 1836, a resolution was passed to accept Congress's terms, and the Toledo War ended. Michigan was finally admitted as the 26th state on January 26, 1837 sans the Toledo Strip but plus an entire second peninsula.

A final decision on the precise, full border between Ohio and Michigan, however, would not be made until 1973 in the case of Michigan v. Ohio. Not over land, though. This dispute had to do with Lake Erie. The Supreme Court sided with Ohio, agreeing that the border did, in fact, angle up toward the Detroit River, and Michigan bore the costs of the suit.

The uninhabited Turtle Island, which had been considered entirely a part of Michigan up to that point, was split between the two with this decision.

10. Michigan Still Got the Last Laugh

While there is evidence of mining by native people in the U.P., the Ojibwe people who were living there in the 19th century were not miners. It was not until 1841 that reports of copper got out. Coupled with the discovery of iron ore a few years later, the U.P. was suddenly the place to be for enterprising prospectors. Thousands relocated to work the mines and support the boom towns. (Timber also became a major industry.)

For over 40 years, Michigan was by far the leading producer of copper in the U.S. Many mines stayed open until the Great Depression in the 20th century only to reopen again for World War II.

Mining in the U.P. has diminished significantly here in the 21st century, but Michigan remains proud of its gorgeous U.P. It's difficult to imagine Michigan without it. With so many waterfalls, mountains, beautiful shorelines, and more, tourism has become the U.P.'s main industry.

As for Toledo... It's now the fourth largest city in Ohio, and got really heavy into the glass industry. There's a terrific zoo, and, I am told, a fantastic art museum.