Economic Significance
The land known as the Toledo Strip was and still is a commercially important area. Prior to the rise of the railroad industry, rivers and canals were the major "highways of commerce" in the American Midwest. A small but important part of the Strip — the area around present day Toledo and Maumee Bay — fell within the Great Black Swamp, and this area was nearly impossible to navigate by road, especially after spring and summer rainfalls. Draining into Lake Erie, the Maumee River was not necessarily well-suited for large ships, but it did provide an easy connection to Indiana's Fort Wayne. At the time, there were plans to connect the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes through a series of canals. One such canal system approved by the Ohio legislature in 1825 was the Miami and Erie Canal that included a connection to the Ohio River and an outflow into Lake Erie via the Maumee River.
During the conflict over the Toledo Strip, the Erie Canal was built, linking New York City and the Eastern seaboard to the Great Lakes at Buffalo. The canal, finished in 1825, immediately became a major route for trade and migration. Corn and other farm products from the Midwest were able to be shipped to eastern markets for much less expense than the older route along the Mississippi River. In addition, the migration of settlers to the Midwest increased sharply after the canal was finished, making existing port cities such as Buffalo boomtowns.
The success of the Erie Canal inspired many other canal projects. Because the western end of Lake Erie offered the shortest overland route to the frontiers of Indiana and Illinois, Maumee Harbor was seen as a site of immediate importance and great value. Detroit was twenty miles (32 km) up the Detroit River from Lake Erie, and faced the difficult barrier of the Great Black Swamp to the south. Because of this, Detroit was less suited to new transportation projects such as canals, and later railroads, than was Toledo. From this perspective on the rapidly developing Midwest of the 1820s and 1830s, both states had much to gain by controlling the land in the Toledo Strip.
Also, the Strip west of the Toledo area is a prime location for agriculture, because of its well-drained, fertile loam soil. The area had for many years been characterized by high per-acre productivities of corn and wheat. Michigan and Ohio both wanted what seemed strategically and economically destined to become an important port and a prosperous region.
Read more about this topic: Toledo War, Creation of The Toledo Strip
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