![USBLM meridian map Wisconsin Michigan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/USBLM_meridian_map_Wisconsin_Michigan.jpg)
The Michigan meridian is the
principal meridian
A principal meridian is a meridian used for survey control in a large region.
Canada
The Dominion Land Survey of Western Canada took its origin at the First (or Principal) Meridian, located at 97°27′28.41″ west of Greenwich, just west of Wi ...
(or north-south line) used as a reference in the Michigan Survey, the
survey
Survey may refer to:
Statistics and human research
* Statistical survey, a method for collecting quantitative information about items in a population
* Survey (human research), including opinion polls
Spatial measurement
* Surveying, the techniq ...
of the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
in the early 19th century. It is located at 84 degrees, 21 minutes and 53 seconds west longitude at its northern terminus at
Sault Ste. Marie, and varies very little from that line down the length of the state.
History
The meridian was surveyed by Benjamin Hough in April 1815. The meridian was selected because it formed one of the principal boundary lines defined in the
Treaty of Detroit
The Treaty of Detroit was a treaty between the United States and the Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandot and Potawatomi Native American nations. The treaty was signed in Detroit, Michigan on November 17, 1807, with William Hull, governor of the Mich ...
in 1807, which was the first large
cession
The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdictio ...
of land by
Native American peoples to the United States in the
Michigan Territory. In that treaty, the boundary line was described as running due north from the mouth of the
Auglaize River
The Auglaize River (Shawnee: ''Kathinakithiipi'') is a tributary of the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio in the United States. It drains a primarily rural farming area in the watershed of Lake Erie. The name of the river was derived from the F ...
on the
Maumee River, which was the site of
Fort Defiance (now
Defiance, Ohio
Defiance is a city in and the county seat of Defiance County, Ohio, United States, about southwest of Toledo, Ohio, Toledo and northeast of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in Ohio's northwestern corner. The population was 16,494 at the 2010 United State ...
).
Michigan's
baseline, which today forms the northern border of
Wayne,
Washtenaw and other counties, was surveyed at the same time by Alexander Holmes, and intended to be exactly north of Fort Defiance.
Although regulations governing the U.S.
Public Land Survey System
The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) is the surveying method developed and used in the United States to plat, or divide, real property for sale and settling. Also known as the Rectangular Survey System, it was created by the Land Ordinance of 178 ...
would later specify that the baseline should be a true
parallel of latitude
A circle of latitude or line of latitude on Earth is an abstract east–west small circle connecting all locations around Earth (ignoring elevation) at a given latitude coordinate line.
Circles of latitude are often called parallels because ...
, this was not the case in earlier surveys, including the Michigan survey. Some roadways were laid out for both survey lines, but there was no intersecting of roadways coinciding with the intersecting of survey lines. Several segments of the Michigan Meridian correspond with a road bearing its namesake Meridian Road. A section of Meridian Road exists in Meridian Township and runs through most of
Ingham and Clinton counties, but is not fully continuous due to marshy areas (formerly the Chandler Marsh, since developed and managed) and the
Looking Glass River
The Looking Glass River in the U.S. state of Michigan is a river flowing through the central region of the Lower Peninsula. It is about long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , acc ...
.
Geography
The Michigan meridian forms the boundary between several counties in Michigan:
Lenawee and
Hillsdale;
Shiawassee and
Clinton;
Saginaw
Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...
and
Gratiot;
Ogemaw and
Roscommon
Roscommon (; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60, N61 and N63 roads.
The name Roscommon is derived from Coman mac Faelchon who buil ...
;
Oscoda and
Crawford;
Montmorency and
Otsego; and a portion of the boundary between
Chippewa and
Mackinac.
U.S. Highway 127 approximately follows the meridian from the Ohio border into
Jackson
Jackson may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name
Places
Australia
* Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region
* Jackson North, Qu ...
. In
Okemos, there is a historical village of Meridian located on the line. Both it and Okemos are within
Meridian Township, State highways
M-30 in
Midland and
Gladwin counties, and
M-129 in Chippewa and Mackinac counties are known as Meridian Road as well.
In the area of Ohio known as the
Toledo Strip
The Toledo War (1835–36), also known as the Michigan–Ohio War or the Ohio–Michigan War, was an almost bloodless boundary dispute between the U.S. state of Ohio and the adjoining territory of Michigan over what is now known as the Toledo S ...
, the townships are numbered from the Michigan meridian and Michigan baseline because at the time they were surveyed, the area was considered to be a part of the
Michigan Territory.
A strip of land was given to
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
when it became a state in 1816. Since this land had not been surveyed, the Indiana portion was surveyed with the rest of Indiana. However in Michigan, the southernmost tier of townships are truncated. The townships were surveyed and sections numbered as if they were in whole townships, except that the southernmost
survey townships were only instead of the usual square (). Sections 19–24 in each township were chopped approximately in half, while sections 25–36 simply do not exist for these survey townships. To compensate for the smaller size, some of the
civil township
A civil township is a widely used unit of local government in the United States that is subordinate to a county, most often in the northern and midwestern parts of the country. The term town is used in New England, New York, and Wisconsin to re ...
s formed from these survey townships were given additional sections of land from adjacent townships, as for example,
White Pigeon Township
White Pigeon Township is a civil township of St. Joseph County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,847 at the 2000 census. The village of White Pigeon is located within the township.
Geography
According to the United States Cen ...
in
St. Joseph County and
Three Oaks Township and
New Buffalo Township in
Berrien County. Some others of these smaller townships were merged into adjoining townships, as in
Porter Township in
Cass County. Similarly, many of the civil townships in Michigan along the Ohio border have somewhat more or less than the standard 36 square miles.
See also
*
*
Meridian-Baseline State Park
Meridian-Baseline State Park is a historic preservation area covering in Ingham County and Jackson County, Michigan, containing the intersection of the Michigan meridian and the baseline used for the Michigan Survey. The state park has two m ...
References
Further reading
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{{Coord, 42, 25, 28, N, 84, 21, 53, W, type:landmark_region:US-MI, display=title
Pre-statehood history of Michigan
Geography of Michigan
Named meridians
Meridians and base lines of the United States
1815 establishments in Michigan Territory
Native American history of Michigan