Michigan's Birthday

On this day in history the great state of Michigan officially joined the union as the 26th state of the United States of America.

On January 26, 1837 the United States Congress accepted Michigan into the union after a war between Michigan and Ohio was settled. And when I mean war, I mean the Toledo war and well that was even an official war.

It took over a year after Michigan had met the "requirements" to become a state to actually become a state.  On December 9, 1835 President Jackson addressed US Congress in a letter stating that Michigan had met the requirements for statehood. Over a year later on December 29, 1836 the senate passed a bill granting Michigan it's statehood. However, Michigan had to do one thing before it could become a state. Michigan and Ohio had to deal with the boundary dispute.

Since Ohio was already a state and had seats in Congress, while Michigan was not yet a state and no had seats in Congress, Ohio was awarded the "Toledo Strip". Michigan was awarded more of the Upper Peninsula, we already had the eastern most part and we received the rest. Michigan lost about 470 square miles from the Toledo Strip but gained approximately 5000 square miles. At the time the UP was considered worthless until the discovery of iron ore and copper. Making the UP quite valuable.

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

(I used previous knowledge and seekingmichigan.org (which I found is a really cool website))