Michigan’s Most Recent Border Change Was Silly

A recent happening on the Texas-Oklahoma border sparked my curiosity - when was the last time Michigan made a change to its border?

Michigan has arguably the most distinguished outline in the United States. The separation of the Upper Peninsula and the Lower Peninsula is unique and confuses a large portion of the folks who have never visited the state.

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Of course, we know the U.P. was granted to the state during the 1830s as Michigan and Ohio squabbled over the Toledo Strip. Michigan eventually took the Upper Peninsula instead, conceding the Toledo Strip to that state to the south.

Still, much of the state's borders are drawn through the Great Lakes. Because of the Great Lakes borders, Michigan shares uncommon borders with Minnesota and Illinois and also holds claim as the largest state east of the Mississippi River based on total area.

Most of Michigan's boundaries were settled around the time the territory became a state in 1837. However, a few changes have taken place since then.

When Was the Most Recent Change to Michigan's Border?

Michigan has had border disputes with nearly all of its neighbors, and most involve the borders splitting up the Great Lakes. By the 1940s, most of the Michigan border was completely settled.

But of course, Ohio changed all of that in 1973.

According to Michigan State University, the last time Michigan made an alteration to its borders was on February 22, 1973, when Ohio and Michigan went to court over the angle of the border in Lake Erie that separates the two states.

The dispute was centered around how the boundary would be drawn from the north cape of Maumee Bay through Turtle Island to the international boundary with Canada. The court case, simply put, appointed a "Special Master" to ensure the boundary would be drawn to accurately represent the historically accurate border.

Michigan felt the line could be drawn straight out into Lake Erie from the Michigan-Ohio land border, granting Michigan most of Turtle Island, a few smaller islands further into the lake, and a considerable portion of the western area of Lake Erie.

Unfortunately for Michigan, the original border, which the state argued was "unclear", wasn't drawn in such a manner. The case concluded that the border should be reflective of the original intentions of the border, which favor Ohio. As such, Michigan had to take on the costs of the case and Ohio got a bit bigger, officially, at the expense of Michigan.

It's fitting that Michigan and Ohio State played to a tie in 1973, considering the nature of this case. The Buckeyes effectively won that stalemate in the end too.

Michigan got a bit greedy and thought the original border was lost to time and they were wrong. Sure, it could have made sense to take the angle of the Canadian border with Ohio and draw it to the land border, but Michigan wanted more and had very little to go on to back up its case.

So Ohio won the case fair and square, but it's not like Ohio needs more space to operate, especially if these people are the best they can offer the world.