MEMORIAL OF THE ziiiiim mtig teäverse k heeeiiii PLANK ROAD COMPANt To the ¡Senate and House of Representatives, in Cktn- gre^ Oissembled ■: j, Your Memorialists, residents of the State of MfChigati, respect¬ fully represent unto your Honorable Body : That the country North and West of the Saginaw Biver, has been represented as being unfít for cultivation ; and for years this representation hos.had ite eifect in retarding its settlement. The trader and hunter who had penetrated into this region had pro¬ mulgated this report for their own benefit. The Surveyor who fabricated the field-notes and maps of a survey of a large portion of these Lands in his room at SaginaW, reported fo the SUryeyoi- deneral that the country was all'swatnps and barirens, and mácle his field-notes and maps accordingly. The agents for all steam¬ boat lines took up and prolonged the cry. The owners of South¬ ern and Western lands spread the rumor, both in this country and Ëurope, and eyery thing was done to give an odious reputation to the climate and soil of Michigan^ A real Survey, which was finished Within the last year, showed that these reports were unifounded, and that these lands possessed as mapy good qualities as any other public lands, and that if their leputution had been based upon their true charactèr, they would have been settled as soon as they were brought ittto market. HEssis Ahâ your memori^ists believing ihnt if the true character of thesé lands uould he set before the public, and a road opened through the center of them, that they would be sold and settled as soon as access could be had to them, look the necessary measures in August, 1851, to constitute themselves a body corporate, accor¬ ding to the laws of the State of Michigan, under the name and style of "The Zilwaukie, Grand Traverse and Mackinaw Plank Road Company," with a Cspital Stoc^ of Five Hundred Thousand Dollars, for the purpose of constructing a Plailk Road from Zil¬ waukie, in the County of Saginaw, to the Grand Traverse Bay, of Lake Michigan, and from thetice to Mackinaw. After having caused a Survey of the route to be made, and from the estimates thereof, your memorialists find that the Capital Stock is not suf» fiaient, for the purpose inlepdea^ and as the country is uninhabited, etscepA Very snjall isettlemenis at each end of the line, your me¬ morialists convinced that the proceeds of the toad would not pay more than a very small percentage on this amount of capital stock lor many years, if they ever received a percentage large enough to afford them a moderi^te recompense for their eKpendiiures. were unable and unwilling to-incur a greater edditidnal ^expense, for the repayment of which there is no present or future prospect. Under these circumstances, your memorialists are forced to ask the aid and assistance of the General Government in constructing this Road, and therefore your memorialists pray your Honorable Bodyito give and grant unto the said Company every alternate Sec¬ tion of land for five miles widej on each side of the line of the Road, to aid and assist the said Company in constructing'the same. This donatmn can he made without detriment to the General Gov¬ ernment, as the many and great benefits which its completioa \vp;i^ld. bplti directly and indirectly bring to the Government, would recompense it for.ngift oi^ a part of those lands which with¬ out the Road would remain unsold for years. , The„adyance of. the, permanent inhabitants of our country is alwáyn pxece.ded by a band of. hunters and squatters, locating wherever they choose, who, if they do, not destroy all of. the timber 01) the lands around tjie_m dp.well., These men generally act with a total dis-i-egard of the rights of the Government and of others, and consider it n, merit rather than a crime, to .defraud the Gov¬ ernment, by robbing the land of all its timber, and then doin¿ all that they cap to,prevent its sple and settlement. Living without or in total disregard of all laws, human or Divine, except a vague instinct of right and wrong, their influence sooner or lttter> will cpplanainale. those ot better principles who, in seeking for new homes, are lorced. to miugle with these lawless inhabitants of a new country.: It is no less, startling than true, that in the process of settling a new. country, one generation, is sacrificed in con¬ tending, with this, evil, ; . , Michigan has felt and still feels the curse of this mode of set- 3 (ling u untry, and ii this process has to be undergone before die Public Lands remaining unsold within her borders are set- iled, she is doomed to suffer' for years, and the General Govern¬ ment to be defrauded on every side. And your memorialists believe that the construction of this Rood will mitigate if it does not totally destroy this evil. Passing through the center of the Public Lands yet unsold in the Southern Peninsula of Michigan, and through them nearly the whole dis¬ tance, its completion would at once ensure their speedy sale and settlement by an industrious- and thriving population. Here the trapper and hunger would find their 'occupation gone,' and be forc¬ ed to leave, and give place to better men. - . " Tbn State of Michigan, surrounded on almost every side by the Great Lakes, and at the same time divided by them into nearly two equal parts is placed in a peculiar situation. The two penin¬ sulas only approach each other at their extreme points at the Siraita of Mackinaw. Otte extends from thence Southward fora distance of three hundred miles,: and the other westward for about the same'distance. The difference in their climate soil and pro¬ ductions is far greater than that,of their location. The Southern peninsula with a mild climate and a fertile soil is prééminent for its agricultural products, while the Northern Peninsiila, with a severer climate anda rocky soil possessing some of the richest iron and copper ores in the world is. as pre-eminent for her mineral resourses. The settled portions df these two peninsu^ las are at or near the base of each, and a wilderness of over three, hundred miles in extent lies between them. This is no obsticle to their: intercourse during the season of navigation, for the Great Lakes furnish a cotivenlent high-way to those who wish ta pass from one part of the State to the other. This high-way is closed from the month of November until April or May, and the navigation of the. Upper Lakes is always dangerous in the fall of the year. This is the only means of inter-communicaffnn between ifieSe two portions of the State of Michigan, and thus they are deprived of all communication with each other during four or five months of every year. The limit which nature thus places to the time in which intercourse ican be maintained between the Inhabitants of the two peninsu¬ las, forced the Gonvention held for the revision of the Consti¬ tution, ot the State of Michigan, in the year 1850, for t^e purpose of alleviating the difiiculties under which the inhabi¬ tants of Northern Michigan labor from this caUse, to provide in that instrument, that the elections in the Northern or Up¬ per Peninsula should be hplden in the month of September, instead of November, as in-the Southern Peninsula ; to provide also, a different Judicial system, in which the Judge of.this District is not a member of the Supreme Court of the Statd, as the Jt^dges of the other Districts are ; and to the peculiar situation of the inhab- 4 liants and taxable property in the Northern Peninsula, to provide that the State, after having received nearly all the taxes paya¬ ble In those Counties, shoulO refund to the diiTerent Counties from whence it was received, a moity thereof, wiih leave to the Leg¬ islature to reduce the proportion to he refunded at will ; and also to provide that the members of the Legislature from that country should receive extra pay, to compensate them for the extra time and money they must spend to enable them to attend the sessions of the Legislature. These circumstances reduce the inhabitants of Northern Mich¬ igan almost to the situation of colonists^ and presenting the ano¬ maly in the United States of two parts of the same Slate gov¬ erned by different laws. But this must be the condition of North¬ ern Michigan, however repugnant to our republican institutions, until there is a way opened whereby a constant and regular com¬ munication may be maintained between it and the rest of the State. The mails for all the liorthern portion of Michigan are now transported from Saginaw to Mackinaw and the Saulte De Sie Marie on dog trains during four months of the year. These trains pass iVom Saginaw to the Saulte De Ste Marie once n month and they sre often detained by deep snows, or by storms or thé rising of the rivers long after the time when they ate due. For this ssrvioe the Government pays $3*20,00. The mail from Mackinaw to the Grand Traverse Bay costs $900.00 per annum. And the semi-monthly mail from Saginaw to the Grand Traverse Bay costs $1200.00, per annum. Yet these mails supported by the Department at an expense of $2400 00 per annum are not sufficient for the public necessities. Fre- <|Uietitly all newspapers and public documents for the Upper Country are detaned at Saginaw or Detroit perhaps for months until the opening of navigation, for the want of the means to transport them over these routes. The mails are frequently ex¬ posed to the dangers of being lost, injured or destroyed during their transmission through the wilderness between Saginaw and Mackinaw ; and the quantity of mailable matter to be carried over these routes is increasing in a very rapid ratio, and demand in¬ creased facilities for its transportation. The population of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan being al¬ most entireiy engaged in mining have to import nil the supplies necessary to carry on their business from Detroit or Cleveland. These are shipped from below to the Saulte De Ste Marie, and from thence they are sent to the different mines. If from the close of navigation earlier than expected, or if from any other cause these supplies fail to reach their destination, part or all of the inhabitants of the Mineral region must suffer to some extent tlari'ng the ensuing winter, even if they do not have to abandon the mines iii consequence thereof. There are many tracts of good jagdculiura! lands in the mineral region which when settled will 5 produce oll ihe coarse grains and hay that will be used in the mines; yet as the severity of tlie climate and the short summer precludes them from producing wheat, this country must always depend upon the rest of the State for its hreadslufTs. Hence the fickle winds and waves whicti elsewhere have no effect upon the miner, may here make or mar his fortunes, even if they do not leave him to perish with hunger with all his wealth of mineral and ore. This may be remedied, and the miner placed beyond the influence of the elements, by giving him a road to and from his mine, to the place from whence his supplies are furnished. This want of the means of a regular and permanent intercourse with the ¡Southern Peninsula operates against the sale and settle¬ ment of the Public Lands in the Upper Peninsula, both agricultu¬ ral and mineral, for men will not undertake to live where their own care and exertions cannot secure for them the necessaries of life. Neither will they in this Country se'tle where they cannot enjov the same civil rights and privileges as their fellow citizens. Therefore it is noj to be expected that these public lands can be sold, and settled by a population which while it procures for itself the means of subsistance by diligence and labor; enriches and honors a State; until these rights and privil¬ eges can be guarantied to them. There yet remains about ten millions of acres of Public Lands unsold in the Southern Peninsula of Micliigan, lying north and west of the Saginaw river, almost all of which has been in market since ISdfi. For the purpose of building a road through these lands to promote their sale, the General Government caused a survey to be made in 1835 for a military road from the Saginaw river to Mackinaw. This road was to be a continuation of the military road from Detroit to the Saginaw river, which was then finished from Detroit to a point five miles beyond the Grand Traverse of Flint river, and^hiriy miles from the Saginsw river. The lands lying in the vicinity of this road were settled as soon as the road was built. But when in consequence of the admission of Michigan ¿as a Slate in the Union in 1836 the General Government abandoned all the works of internal improvement, which it had commenced or had in contemplation, all settlement on the line of this road ceased. That portion of the road which was left unfinished in 1836, remained in an almost impassable condition from that time until 1850, when the Saginaw and Genessee Plank Road Go. was incorporated for the purpose of constructing a plank road from the village of Flint (the Grand Traverse of Flint river) to the Saginaw river at East Saginaw in the County of Sagi¬ naw. This road is thirty four miles long, and it was commen¬ ced in the summer of 1850 and it is now completed the whole distance. There is also n plank road to connect with this in process of construction from East Saginaw to Zilwauk-^e which 6 k, l'oirr tiiiles farthefr (linvn and at the head of ship navígatioi» Njii the ÎSaginnw river. The Saginaw and Mackinaw rbad not having been cor»rwenced nl the lime of the admis.sion of Michigan, the design was quiet- ily al)nndonfd and since then nothing has been done to open.tiie 'cotiiiiry liirough which it was to be buill; Hod ibis road been cutiiirueied at that time or soon after, the Southern Peninsula Would have been covered at this time with a dense population; 'W.th a climate milder than that of the Aliantic Slates on the ■same latitude and a soil of unequalled fertility, one half, ot it yet rerouin^ a wiidernesa, because there was no way by which ac- '■aess to it cots Id be obtained. But as mildness of climate and fertility of soil is no inducement to the farmer to settle on lands whose produce he cannot sell, this fcountry could offer nothing to the agriculturist to compensate him lor the want of an easy access to a permanent market; for al¬ though the fertile soil may yield an hundred fold to the tiller, and foreign nations in a starving condition, would give millions fuf Iiis grain, yet if for the want of a road he > cannot send it to them, 'his superfluity is valueless to him, and to them but a mockery. If the farmer cannot dispose of his produce, he must become indebted unto the merchant for the necessaries of life, or he must ■go without thdm. But few are disposed to do this, and most em¬ brace the othe» aiteinative, and in a few years they are found to 'be so deep in debt that they are forced to yield up their farms to their creditors to pay their debts; and he who in- the buoyancy of youth and strengh entered into the woods to seek a home for him¬ self and children, finds in his bid- age that he is a houseless and homeless man, and peroliance a dependent upon the cold charities of the world for a subsistence. The merchant has the farm^of the laborer for his debts, but he is no better otf; it will not pay for his goods, aud after a few years he is forced to go into bank- rijptcy, and «hen the property goes into the hands of his foreign creditors. They keep it for a time, pay taxes on it and after a few years they dispose of it to a farmer, for a mere song, and the property begins its race of assignments again. Thus are clearings made, and such too often the fate of those who make them. And all this is sudered because there is. no road to a market and the settler is too busy in clearing his land and securing his crops to leave home for days and per¬ haps for weeks, to build one. These things account for the avid- i»y with which lands on the banks of navigable streams are sought in a new country, for the slow and toilsome progression b^. means of canoes or baltaux is better than no way to and from a market. Lands situated upon a navigable stream or on a good- road can be sold with greater ease for twice the amount that lands not possess¬ ing these advantages can be sold for, although in other respects, far superior. T These things show the mann-er in which settlement» nre ft>ro>e