Michigan Statehood

Today in Michigan history, Michigan became Michigan. But it wasn't easy.

Early on, what became our state was more or less bypassed by the westward expansion of the United States. Everyone, it seemed, went west, so that several areas west and south of us became states before we did. Relatively few people made the right turn at Toledo, thinking Michigan a swampland which didn't offer much, and wagons went better straight anyway on dry land. So Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and other areas were given statehood first. That's where the people went.

The opening of the Erie Canal made Detroit a larger economic player in the developing Middle West. Goods crossed New York into Buffalo, and came down Lake Erie into Detroit, or across Canada into the city's waiting arms. Yet even with that event, in 1825, Michigan was still 12 years from taking a seat in Washington.

Perhaps the famous border war with Ohio got in the way. You know, the one we continue today with that University down south. Voices were raised, militias assembled, and one person killed, all over a strip of land which ran out from Toledo, which at the time both the State of Ohio and the Territory of Michigan wanted, for the shipping industry involved. Ohio was a state already, so Ohio got Toledo. But we got the Upper Peninsula, thought of as a Seward's Folly (before Seward) yet which paid great dividends with the copper boom of the 1800s. Wouldn't you rather have da UP dan Toledo anyhoo?

More recently, Michigan was the only state to lose population during the 2010 Census. One wonders if all the early tribulations along with more recent ones such as the Census and the lack of economic diversity led to a bit of a pessimistic outlook on the part of Michigan residents. Maybe so, maybe no; but despite the low points of our history, we've had our highs, and we'll have more soon, whenever history is ready. Michigan is not just the Great Lakes State, it's a great state period.

Happy Birthday, Michigan.