This is Bob Myers from the Historical Society of Michigan with a Michigan history moment. In 1836, Ohio and Michigan nearly went to war. The conflict, dubbed the Toledo War, ended in a short term defeat, but long term victory for Michigan. Ohio had entered the Union in 1803 with a poorly defined northern border. Michigan, then a territory, claimed a border with Ohio that ran straight east from the southern tip of Lake Michigan. That left a 10 mile wide strip of land claimed by both Michigan and Ohio. Well, no one paid much attention to the discrepancy until the 1830s when Michigan desired to become a state. The so called Toledo Strip included Maumee Bay, a harbor where the Maumee river emptied into Lake Erie. Both Michigan and Ohio wanted that harbor and the valuable farmland in the Toledo Strip. Michigan had administered the strip and had a stronger legal claim to the land. Ohio, however, was a state that meant that it had congressmen and two senators, whereas Michigan as a territory had none. Michigan cast off its territorial government in 1835 and declared itself a state and created a state government. It elected a representative and two senators and sent them to Washington. There they cooled their heels in the balcony for the House and Senate refused to seat them. Tempers flared and Governor Stevens, Mason of Michigan and Robert Lucas of Ohio called out their respective militias. Hundreds of armed men pastured along the border, ready for battle. President Andrew Jackson, seeking re election in 1836, had no desire to offend Ohio and lose its electoral votes. His administration proposed a compromise. Michigan could cede its claim to the Toledo Strip and in exchange receive the western 3/4 of the Upper Peninsula. Michigan rejected the compromise. Then the federal government discovered a treasury surplus and proposed to give every state a share. Michigan, bankrupt from the cost of paying its militia, would receive nothing because it was not a state. In a second convention in December 1836, Michigan accepted the compromise. Michigan joined the Union in January 1837. In the end, the Upper Peninsula's vast riches of timber, copper and iron more than made up for the loss of the Toledo Strip. This Michigan history moment was brought to you by michiganhistorymagazine.org.