Locating the lost Peninsula.
Michigan's Lost Peninsula isn't really lost; it's just difficult to find. Located at the southeast corner of the state, it is also a living reminder of the border war with Ohio that began when Michigan residents first began to petition for statehood in 1832.Michigan's state motto--"If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you"--was coined in the singular, but may as well have been plural. The Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula are joined by the Keweenaw, the Leelanau, the Garden, and the Old Mission. Even the large land mass that we call the Thumb ranks as a peninsula. And then there's the Lost Peninsula, which most Michiganians have never heard of or visited. This sliver of land, bounded by the Ottawa River, North Maumee Bay, and Lake Erie, is a part of Erie Township in Monroe County. But the only way to get to it (by land) is through Toledo.
How It Got Its Name
The story goes that a Detroit newspaperman in the 1940s came up with the moniker after researching this geographical quirk. He said that Michigan had an Upper Peninsula and a Lower Peninsula and--in the far southeast corner--a "Lost Peninsula." The name stuck, and current residents don't seem to mind it a bit. They describe their off-the-beaten-path home as unique and very neighborly. With only about 50 homes on 200-plus acres, the Lost Peninsula qualifies as a tight-knit community.
A stone boundary marker--Post 70--marks the entrance to the peninsula. History was made here in 1915, when Michigan Governor Woodbridge Ferris and Ohio Governor Frank Willis shook hands over the successful completion of a survey delineating the two states' border. Ever since the Toledo War of 1835 and well before, the boundary line between Michigan and Ohio had been a contentious piece of business. The meeting of the two states' chief executives was supposed to signify an end to "hostilities" and to usher in an era of goodwill and understanding. Fifty years later, the event would be repeated, this time with the states' lieutenant governors--William Milliken of Michigan and John Brown of Ohio--doing the honors. There was a raised platform at the ceremonial site, and the two politicians made a point of exchanging their assigned seats so that they could sit in their respective states. On September 18, 1965, a plaque bearing the words "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors" was attached to the boundary marker.
Waging a Boundary War
Despite the sentiments expressed on the plaque, Ohio and Michigan have not been poster children for neighborly relations. Before Michigan was accepted for statehood by Congress in January 1837, the feisty territory and its equally combative first governor, Stevens T. Mason, had fought a war with its larger and more populous neighbor over a disputed tract of land known as the Toledo Strip. The 468-square-mile strip was created when two boundary surveys, one ordered by Michigan and one by Ohio, created the variance. Ohio had angled its northern boundary in a northeasterly direction to include the port of Toledo within Ohio, and had placed a proviso to that effect in its constitution. Michigan, however, used the language of the Northwest Ordinance as the basis for its boundary claim, citing "a straight line from the southernmost end of Lake Michigan to where it intersects with Lake Erie."
But Michigan was working from several disadvantages. Imprecise maps failed to place the southern tip of Lake Michigan with any certainty. To make matters worse, Ohio was an established state with allies in Congress, whereas Michigan was only a territory with no vote. Finally, Michigan was placing its hopes on a flawed argument: When the United States constitution was adopted as our national document, the old Northwest Ordinance became for all practical purposes a dead letter.
Michigan won an initial skirmish, when President Andrew Jacksons attorney general ruled in favor of the territory's claim to the "Toledo Strip," but the victory was short-lived. Statehood was held hostage for two years until Michigan yielded on the Toledo question; as compensation, Michigan was granted the western three-quarters of the Upper Peninsula.
The new state line gave the Maumee River and the city of Toledo to Ohio, but it created a geographical oddity. The boundary sliced through the Ottawa River on its way to Maumee Bay, cutting off a small section of Monroe County--what we now know as the Lost Peninsula.
Settling the Land
For the first 30-plus years after statehood, hunting, fishing, and trapping were the predominant activities on the peninsula. Then, in 1874, the land was bought by a Toledoan named Zebulon Pheatt, and he subdivided it for rent to tenant farmers. (The southwesternmost portion of the peninsula--Ohio's Point Place--was also being farmed at the time. By the 1880s, though, it began to convert to residential use and to support a burgeoning resort industry.)
During Prohibition, the peace and serenity of the Lost Peninsula was disturbed by the sound of motorboats coming and going at odd hours. Rumrunners had discovered that they could escape the long arm of the law and easily bring Canadian liquor to the U.S. from this location. (Michigan police seldom patrolled the peninsula, because they had to enter Ohio to get to it; Toledo police lost their jurisdiction at the state line.)
Lost Peninsula residents lived a pretty primitive life until the 1940s, when Consumers Power stretched an underwater line to provide electricity to its Michigan customers. (Water and sewer were provided by the city of Toledo.)
In 1960, Toledo proposed annexing the peninsula. But a petition opposing the action was signed by a high percentage of lot owners, and the idea was dropped. Five years later, Toledo attempted to acquire a marina on the peninsula for recreational purposes. But Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley drew a line in the sand. "As far as Michigan is concerned," he said, "it will never cede an inch of Lost Peninsula lands to Ohio."
Michigan never lost another inch, but it did suffer the tragic loss of two of its citizens, in the wake of a tornado that swept over the Lost Peninsula on Palm Sunday 1965.
The Peninsula Today
Despite the fact that today's residents have to arrange for their own trash pickup and snow removal and bus their children to Michigan schools, they have no desire to become a part of Ohio. Mike Whitman, retired from General Motors, and his wife, Ellen, have lived there for 15 years. "This is a good place to take kids to," he says of the quiet surroundings. Polly Konrad echoes those sentiments. She and her husband, Jeff, who works for Chrysler in Toledo, have lived on the Lost Peninsula since 2000. "It's a community where you can rely on your neighbors," she says. Her young children love to ride bikes and go boating. She doesn't care for the mayflies that descend on the area in early summer, "but my husband loves it here and won't move."
Just down the road, Rick Knapp has a sign on his house that says living on the Lost Peninsula "is like being on vacation every day of your life." He's a 28-year resident, and enjoys waking up to the sound of crickets and birds. At the Lost Peninsula Marina, Jill Tabbert, co-owner with her husband, Bill, lives on site and describes her world as "unique, a special place to be, a hidden jewel in Michigan." A security gate placed at the entrance of the peninsula limits automobile access to homeowners and invited guests, but you can walk in and look around.
To visit Michigan's Lost Peninsula, take Summit Street in Toledo to 131st Street, which dead-ends at Edgewater Drive. Travel north on Edgewater to the River Cafe and Marina. The stone state-line marker erected in 1915 is on the right side of the street.
Don Faber is the author of "The Toledo War" and "The Boy Governor: Stevens T. Mason. " He lives in Ann Arbor.
PART OF A UNIQUE HISTORIC DISTRICT
The Lost Peninsula is part of the North Maumee Bay Archeological District, located in the southeastern corner of Erie Township in Monroe County. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1980.
The district--which contains evidence of Indian occupancy dating back to the late Woodland period (500-1000 CE)--fronts a portion of western Lake Erie at the mouths of Shantee Creek and the Ottawa River. This sparsely populated area includes the Woodtick Peninsula, Gard Island, Indian Island, the Erie Marsh Preserve, the historic Erie Fish and Hunt Club, and much of the grassy shoreline and interior wetlands. Public access is permitted, and the area is a popular fishing destination.
Properties within the North Maumee Bay district are owned by private land owners, The Nature Conservancy, the University of Toledo, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Source: en.wikimedia.org
THE LOST PENINSULA'S FIRST INHABITANTS
The history of the Lost Peninsula begins with the Wyandot Indians who made a home there.
Except for winter hunts or forays against some of the southern tribes, the Wyandots did not spend much time south of Lake Erie prior to 1700. They were a Canadian people, of Iroquoian stock. Their nearest neighbors were the Hurons, whose fate they shared and whose name came to be used interchangeably with Wyandot.
A series of disastrous wars with the Iroquois of present-day New York state led to a dispersion of the Hurons and related tribes in 1649. For 50 years, the various bands wandered the upper Great Lakes region, surrounded by more numerous Algonquian neighbors.
In 1701, the French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac decided to build a fort at present-day Detroit. He thought it wise to have friendly Indians living close by--a decision that prompted him to ask two or three tribes to settle along the river. Many Wyandots accepted the invitation.
It was not long before Wyandot communities extended down the Detroit River and along the southern shore of Lake Erie, even into Pennsylvania. Eventually, the Wyandots laid claim to most of what is now Ohio.
The Wyandots welcomed other tribes into their territory--including the Delawares, Shawnees, and Ottawas--who were displaced from their ancestral homes in the East by white settlement.
When western expansion threatened the tribes' existence in Ohio, they formed a loose confederation to combat the pressure. With British support, the Indians won many battles. Then, in 1794 at Fallen Timbers, near Toledo, the combined tribes were defeated by American General Anthony Wayne. The Wyandots fought bravely, but suffered heavy losses.
Over the next 50 years, the tribe was compelled to give up their villages in Ohio, one by one. In 1 843, the U.S. government forced them to leave the state altogether for reservations in Kansas.
Source: wyandotte-nation.org
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| Author: | Faber, Don |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Michigan History Magazine |
| Date: | Jul 1, 2015 |
| Words: | 1792 |
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