Old Mackinaw; Or, The Fortress of the Lakes and its Surroundings

by W. P. Strickland

"This protective interest to Canada railroads is the greatest inducement to be offered them.

"They will not invest in the road beyond Crow Wing, simply for the sake of grants of lands, made valuable only by the outlay of their money; even should the lands finally redeem the previous outlay for the road, that is no object, because the road will not pay more than cost of running and sustaining it, and if it should some beyond that, it will be frittered away by bad management and stealing. At least it is fair to suppose so, and hence they must be assured of enough of land grants to finally make the road, which of itself will pay nothing, only in the way of affording the roads east of Crow Wing, owned by them, fair dividends. This consideration will of itself induce them to furnish capital to the Pacific, and it is in the power of the government thus to interest them. No other proposed route can claim foreign aid because of such good reasons. Our government can aid only in lands; in valueless lands she is or may be wealthy. No bill can pass Congress, only by affording equal aid in lands to the Northern, Central and Southern routes, each standing on their commercial merits before capitalists.

"The chance for us thus to enlist them, is but for a limited time. Soon they will become committed to the North Canada Pacific Road, north of Lake Superior, when they will not help ours, and thus protract ours for want of means and competing road. At present, two of the most important Canada roads can be enlisted in the above views, because if the Canada road north of Lake Superior is made, it will divert the trade from them, they being too far south to be benefited. But by going to the Straits of Mackinaw, they secure a division of the Western trade—among the three roads. The road through the mineral regions will develop that country and afford a good market for the produce of the country west of it.

"Chicago is no more on the direct route from the East to Iowa, than is Mackinaw city on the direct route to the northwest from New York.

"Lake Michigan naturally forces such a division of the Western and Northwestern trade, and the Strait of Mackinaw is most favorably situated for crossing. Cars can be transferred by ferry boat from point to point, without delay or cost of train shipment.

"That country is nearer to market than any other Western State; cheaper lands and good soil, and healthy climate, and a superior wheat country, affording employment in lumbering, fishing, mining, manufacturing, &c., offering great inducements to foreigners, and of interest to New York, to be settled."

The history of the West has presented some remarkable facts, contrary to the ordinary experience of human progress. It is assumed, as an historical fact, in European or Asiatic progress, that the growth of towns and states must be slow. It requires generations to bring them to maturity, and even imperial power has failed to create cities, without the aid of time and gradual increase. But, this has been reversed in America. We cannot take it for granted that because the natural site of a town is now clothed with the forest, and remote from habitations, that it will not become a prosperous city, within a half-dozen years. For, we know that in the Northwest, cities have arisen on a substantial basis, to a numerous population, in a space so brief that history has no record of their existence, and the school maps no name for the place of their being.

Chicago which commenced its growth in 1834, had a population in 1857, of 100,000, Milwaukee in twenty-one years rose to 50,000, St. Paul in fifteen years to 15,000; Keokuk in eighteen years to 15,000, Grand Rapids in twelve years to 8000; Saginaw city in twenty-two years 4000, and Superior city in the short space of two years to 4000.

We thus see, that, in the Northwest, cities do grow up, in the midst of the wilderness, and the wilderness itself soon blooms as the rose. To say, then, that a point affording every natural and commercial advantage for the growth of a large city is not now a city, is to say nothing against its position or prospects. Within the memory of a generation the five great States, (which have heretofore been termed the Northwest,) contained less then a half a million of people, and Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul, were not even dots on the map of States. A mission or a military fort was all they could boast. These States now contain six millions of inhabitants, and the towns on the lake shore two hundred and fifty thousand. But to present the point of growth, in the clearest point of view, let us consider it dependent wholly on that of the surrounding country. This we can tell almost precisely. We know the rate of growth in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Canada West.

Canada West in 1840, had a population of 640,000, in 1850, of 982,000, and in 1857, 1,100,000, Michigan in 1840, was 212,000, in 1850, 397,000, and in 1857, 700,000. The population of Wisconsin in 1840, was 30,000, in 1850, it was 305,991, and in 1857, it was 600,000. The increase in Minnesota in seventeen years was 200,000.