THE ST. MARTS FALLS SHIP CANAL CO. 



By an act of Congress approved August 26, 1852, seven 

 hundred and fifty thousand acres of land were granted by the 

 United States to the State of Michigan, for the purpose of 

 aiding in the construction of a ship canal around the Falls of 

 St. Mary in said State, and thus opening Lake Superior to 

 navigation by vessels from the lower Lakes. 



The State accepted the grant and appointed Commissioners 

 to let the building of the canal, and agents to select the lands. 



The Commissioners entered into a contract with Joseph P. 

 Fairbanks, Erastus Corming and others, for building the canal. 

 This contract was subsequently assigned to the St. Mary's 

 Falls Ship Canal Cbmpany, a corporation created by an act of 

 the Legislature of the State of New York. Under this con- 

 tract the canal was completed at an expense of $1,000,000. 



The Company thereupon became entitled to and received 

 from the State the patents for the 750,000 acres. The lands 

 were selected by agents named by the Company and approved 

 by the Governor; 



All the iron and copper lands in the upper Peninsula have 

 been sold to the St. Mary's Canal Mineral Land Company, 

 leaving the pine and farming lands, which are those that will 

 be offered at auction on the 2nd day of September next at 

 Detroit. 



The sale has been ordered with the view of winding up 

 the affairs of the Company, as soon as possible, by giving 

 the stockholders an opportunity to surrender their stock by 

 purchasing lands at the sale, and thus holding their lands in 

 severalty, which many of them are desirous of doing, and as 

 it will be a public sale of all the lands of the Company, 



