Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-06-08

Michigan was some distance south of
the point shown on Mitchells map. so
' the canny delegates stipulated that II
the proposed east and vest line laid
down by congress should fall so far
south as to miss Laks Erie Ohio
would then claim all territory to the
| northernmost cape of Miami bay.
{ In 1906 congress created the terri
tory of Michigan and fixed the south
| erri boundary as provided by the oral
nance of 1857, with the result that the
| new territory claimed strip some six
miles wide across the entire southern
side of Lake Erie, including the port
! Of Toledo. The dispute Jagged until
1885, when Michigan became a state
/, and sought to enforce it's claim on the
| Lake Erie strip. Civil war between
| the two states threatened. and some
actual fighting occurred before con-
, eress settled the dispute by recognlz-
/ ing Ohio's claims and compensating
Michigan with the gift of the Upper
Peninsula. Michigan did not grow
| enthusiastic over the new territory
until a dozen years later when first
copper and then iron ore was discov-
ereo IN the peninsula.
In 1913. when Illinois was created.
! Nathaniel Pope, her delegate in con-
gress, argued for northern boundary
! where Mitchells map showed the foot
Of the lake, instead of where the
j southern bend actually is. He de-
| clared the new states commerce must
! become identified with the northern
! lab lisa
Ohio and Mississippi rivers, with the
result that the state might toin
southern confederacy in case the
union were disrupted. Congress heed
| ed his plea and gave the new state
Chicago and strip of territory run
ming 81 miles north from the foot of
the lake, and west to the Mississippi.
| Surveyors who ran the new line
made another mistake, with the result
that a wedge shaped piece of Illinois
! is actually in Wisconsin at one end of
/ the line. and part of Wisconsin is in
, Illinois at the other. Illinois claims
that the city of Beloit, Wis. belongs
to that state, and the Illinois consti-
tutional convention last fall consid-
cred asking a new survey. Wisconsin
| retorted she would lay claim to Chi
! cago and everything to the north
under the forever unalterable" clause
Of the ordinance of ISL and the mat
! ter was dropped.
The question of the Michigan-WiS-
consin boundary was raised recently
when the Wisconsin Legislature re-
jected n resolution inviting the people
! of the Upper Peninsula to secede and
join this state. Representatives from
the Peninsula in the Michigan legis-
lature followed with a resolution pro-
posing they be permitted to form a
! separate state. to be called Superior.
Finally the Michigan legislature ap-
pointed a committee to investigate
the state boundary, and appropriated
! $4,000 for its expenses. The com
mittee recently recommended to Gov
ernor Sleeper that Michigan bring suit
to recover $50 square miles Of Wiscon-
sin territory on the ground that sur
, veyors chose the wrong fork of the
Montreal river when they ran the
state border line. The recommended
ton Followed a refusal by Governor
John J. Blaine, of Wisconsin, to arbi-
trate the question.
| Another map makers mistake is in
volved in this dispute. according to
Mr.. Thwaitc. A committee of the
! United States senate fixed tl>c
boundary line, using q map publishof
! by l.. Judson. which represented e
/ Montreal and Menominee rivers bolt
! rising in Lake Vieux Desert, thus