Michigan’s “Bad Trade” That Paid Off (with music) (duplicated)

Did you know part of Michigan was once considered a terrible trade and nearly not worth

keeping at all? It looks like it belongs to another state, or even another

country. The Upper Peninsula, or U.P., is physically cut off from the rest

of Michigan, separated by the Straits of Mackinac. And here’s the weird par— it almost didn’t

belong to Michigan at all. After the Toledo War in the 1830s, Michigan gave up

land to Ohio and was “compensated” with the Upper Peninsula. At the time, people thought the

U.P. was useless wilderness until massive copper and iron deposits were discovered.

Those minerals fueled American industry, railroads, and even early electrical wiring.