The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1921-06-10
MICHIGAN SEEK HURLEY
STATE MAY SUE WISCONSIN
FOR RICHEST VILLAGE
Three Hundred andSixty Square
Miles of Territory Are In
Dispute
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatchl

threatening to sue Wisconsin to obtain
possession of Hurley, the richest
village" in the world and $50 square
ies OF Wisconsin territory; Illinois
and Wisconsin are in dispute over
their boundary line, and the Upper
Peninsula OF Michigan wants to Secede
and form a new state OF Superior.
while Wisconsin hopes to annex the
rich peninsular country to her self.
And mapnaker's error in the year
1855 is responsible for all the trouble
according 10 Reuben q. ThwalteS.
secretary of the state historical society
of Wisconsin. The mapmaker, man
named Mitchell made the mistake OF
charting the foot of Lake Michigan
In latitude AZ degrees 90 minutes IN
stead of Al degrees 81 minutes. The
error OF less than one degree according
to Mr. Thwaite, was responsible for
the Toledo War between Ohio and
Michigan, for the placing OF Chicago
and its rich north shore suburbs in
Illinois instead of Wisconsin instead
Of Wisconsin, the anneXations of the
Upper Peninsular to Michigan. and all
the boundary disputes which have
grown out OF these events. Subse-
quent mapmakers and surveyors who
followed in Mitchell's footsteps made
one or two other mistakes which con-
tributed TO The general confusion.
When the congress OF the thirteen
states. in session at Philadelphia, July
IL, 1877, adopted an ordinance for the
government of the Northwest Terri
tory embracing the present states OF
Ohio. Michigan. Indiana, Illinois and
Wisconsin Mitchell's map was used
as a guide The ordinance provided that
two OF the FIVE states should lie north
4 NlNF.S NrrrtN
the southern bend or extreme OF Lake
Michigan" The preamble of the or
dinance stated that IT'S articles should
forever remain unalterable unless by
common consent"
A pencil line drawn on this copy of
Mitchell's map, still Oh file in the state
department, passes about midway be-
tween the River Raisin and the settle
ment of Detroit.
TIL foundation for the boundary dis
putes was laid, according to Mr..
Thwaite, in 1902, when the people of
Ohio held their constitutional con-
vention at Chillicothe to demand en-
trance into the Union. A trapper who
happened to be in the village told
the delegates that the actual foot of
Lake Michigan was some distance
south of the point shown on Mitchells
map, so the canny delegates stipulated
that if he proposed east and west
line laid down by congress should
fall so far south as to miss Lake Erie,
Owohiould then claim all territory
70 the northernmost cape OF Miami
bay.
In 1905 congress created the terri
tory of Michigan and fixed the south
ern boundary as provided by the or
dinance of 1887, with the result that
the new territory claimed a strip
some six mil % wide across the en-
tire southern side of Lake Erie, in
GLIDING the port of Toledo. The dis
pute Jagged until 1895. when Michi-
gan became state and sought to en-
force its claim on the Lake Erie
strip. Civil war between the two
states threatened, and some actual
fighting occurred before congress set
tied the dispute by recognizing Ohio S
claims and compromising Michigan
with the gift of the Upper Peninsula.
Michigan did not grow enthusiastic
over the new territory until dozen
years later when first copper and then
iron ore was discovered in the PENN
sula.
In 1918, when Illinois was created,
Nathaniel Pope, her delegate in con-
gress, argued for a northern boundary
where Mitcnel's map showed the foot
of the lake. instead of where the SOU
them bend actually is. He declared
the nav states commerce must be-
come identified with the northern lakes
or else flow south down the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers. with the result
that the state might join southern
ccnfederacy in case the union were
disrupted Congress needed his plea
and gave the new state Chicago and
a strip of territory running sixty one
miles north from the foot of the lake,
and west to the Mississippi.
Made Another Mistake.
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 a part of Wisconsin
Is In Illinois at the other. Illinois
claims that the city of Beloit, Wis,
belcrgs to that state. and the Illinois
constitutional convention last fall con-
sidered asking new survey. Wis
consin retorted she would lay claim
to Chicago and everything to the
north under the forever unalterable''
clause Of the ordinance of 1887, and
the matter was dropped.
The question of the Michigan Wis
consin boundary was raised recently
when the Wisconsin legislature re-
jected a resolution inviting the people
OF the upper PenlnSula 10 Seceue ana
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 he called Superior.
Finally the Michigan legislature ap-
pointed committee to investigate the
state boundary, and appropriated $10,-
90 for its expenses. TIL committee
recently recommended to Governor
Sleeper that Michigan bring suit to re-
cover SO square miles of Wisconsin
territory on the ground that surveyors
chose the wrong fork of the Montreal
river when they ran the state border
line. The recommendation followed a
refusal by Governor John J. Blaine, Of
Wisconsin, to arbitrate the question.
Another map makers mistake is in
volved in this dispute, according to
Mr.. Thwaite. A committee of the
United States senate fixed the bound
airy line, using a map published by
L. Judson, which represented the
Montreal and Menominee rivers both
rising In Lake Vieux Desert, thus
making an island out of the northern
peninsula. Senator William c. Prest-
on, of South Carolina, proposed this
alleged river highway as fair divid