Mapping Antebellum Euro-American Settlement Spread in Southern Lower Michigan

Abstract

During the first half of the nineteenth century, thousands of Euro American agricultural settlers immigrated to the southern portion of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, occupying the region and dramatically altering its appearance. These settlers transformed the aboriginal landscape as they established new farms and settlements and created an infrastructure of trade and communications capable of supporting an economy increasingly devoted to commercial production. The new landscape of Michigan reflected the nature of its colonization, a process that shaped the patterning of settlement and the distribution of population. Understanding why Michigan's colonization took the form it did demands that we ascertain the spatial history of its large scale setdement.