Toledo War
The Toledo War of 1835 involved a confict between the state of Ohio and the Michigan Territory of the United States over the city and harbor of Toledo and 486 square miles of land in northwest Ohio.
When the Northwest Territory was established with the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, there were no accurate surveys of the region. The Ordinance defined an east-west line from the southern tip of Lake Michigan to divide the Northwest Territory for administrative purposes. The precise location of that Ordinance Line became the subject of dispute between the State of Ohio and the Michigan Territory.
When Ohio became a state in 1803, its constitution included a provision that redrew the Ordinance Line such that it angled slightly northward and included Toledo and all of the Maumee Bay in Ohio. The discrepancy between the original Ordinance Line and Ohio's revision defined an area that became known as the Toledo Strip.
When Michigan applied to become a state in 1835, it claimed the original Ordinance Line as its southern boundary. However, Ohio refused to cede the Toledo strip.
Ohio's Governor Robert Lucas drew counties and set up county governments in the strip. Toledo was placed within Lucas County of Ohio, named after the Governor. Michigan's youthful territorial governor Stevens T. Mason responded by sending a militia force to the area. Lucas did the same. The Toledo Strip was at the time covered with dense arborvitae swamps (collectively known as the "Great Black Swamp"), which today have almost all been drained off for farm land. The two armies got lost for weeks and never found each other in the swamps. The United States Congress settled the issue by awarding Toledo to Ohio and giving Michigan the western two-thirds of the upper peninsula (the eastern portion was already part of the Territory). Ohio was considered the winner at the time because the "U.P." was thought to be worthless; only later was the extent of its rich mineral resources known.
The boundary between Ohio and Michigan in Lake Erie was not finally resolved until a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1973.
Traces of the original Ordinance Line can still be seen in northwestern Ohio and northern Indiana. The northern boundary of Ottawa County with Lucas County follows the original Ordinance Line. Many township boundaries also follow that line and many old north-south roads are offset as they cross the line. The line is identified on topographical maps as the Old Indian Treaty Boundary.
See also: Military history of the United States, Toledo Strip timeline