240 RURAL MICHIGAN 



and hay was transported from Detroit to the copper 

 country in the period following the Civil War. 



To ameliorate transportation conditions was the 

 great desire of the settlers. The territorial council 

 chartered companies for the purpose of improving 

 the navigation of certain rivers by removing obstruc- 

 tion and straightening the water-courses. Other 

 companies undertook the construction of plank-roads, 

 or turnpikes. Tlie territorial and state governments 

 established highways between such important points 

 as Pontiac, Ann Arbor and Adrian; Monroe and 

 Ypsilanti ; Mount Clemens, Saginaw and Sault Ste. 

 Marie; Niles, Kalamazoo and Saginaw, Marshall and 

 Grand Eapids, Coldwater and Berrien. Blois' Gazet- 

 teer of Michigan for 1838 describes forty-two mail 

 routes in the State, indicating that there was weekly 

 mail service between Detroit and Lapeer, Detroit 

 and Utica, Detroit and Howell, Maumee and Jones- 

 ville, Ypsilanti and Plymouth, Saline and Grass 

 Lake, Jonesville and Marshall, Coldwater and St. 

 Joseph, Ann Arbor and Pontiac, Ann Arbor and 

 Ionia, Marshall and Coldwater, Marshall and Cen- 

 terville, Pontiac and Ionia, Mount Clemens and 

 Lapeer, Adrian and Jonesville, Adrian and Defiance, 

 Ohio; Michigan City, Indiana and Grand Haven; 

 Battle Creek and Eaton, Kalamazoo and Saugatuck, 

 Ionia and Saginaw. Thrice in the week, it appears, 

 the mail passed between Toledo and Adrian.^ Mitch- 

 ell's Tourist Map of 1835 describes three principal 



^"Mich. Pioneer & Hist. Soc. Collections," XXXVIII, 

 594. 



