GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS IN THE ESTABLISHING 
OF THE OHIO-MICHIGAN BOUNDARY LINEi 
Constance G. Eirich 
Herder tells us that history is geography set into motion; Miss 
Semple says: Today a fact of geography becomes tomorrow a 
factor of history. ” Several facts of geography are fundamental 
in the dispute between Ohio and Michigan over the boundary 
question. In origin, this long and bitter quarrel resembled the 
state and colonial contentions over boundaries, all of which arose 
from either ignorance of local geography, or an unpardonable 
disregard of vested rights. Michigan claimed her boundary as a 
vested right from the ordinance of 1787 ;^ whereas Ohio urged 
that the ordinance based its determination on erroneous geo- 
graphical facts ; hence the boundaries as laid down in it should not 
be strictly binding. 
The geographic factors involved in the question are: (1) the 
true location of the Southern end of Lake Michigan; (2) the 
physiography, coast line and harbors of the western part of the 
Erie basin; (3) the prospective canals of Ohio; (4) population, 
i.e., relative size of the two groups concerned. 
Southern End of Lake Michigan 
In the ordinance of 1787, Congress reserved the right to form one 
or two states in that part of the North West Territory which lay 
north of an east-west line drawn through the southern bend or 
extreme of Lake Michigan. This line would form the southern 
boundary between the states to be created later. The trouble 
arose from the fact that due care was not exercised in determining 
the line. Maps of the Western country extant at the time of the 
ordinance was adopted show the south end of Lake Michigan to be 
so far north of its true position that the northern boundary of the 
1 This paper was prepared in connection with a course in geography at the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, under the direction of Prof. Frank Carney. Reprinted from 
Journal of Geography, vol. xii, pp. 5-8, September, 1913. 
2 Tuttle, Charles R., General History of Michigan, 1873, p. 450. 
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