Appendix H - Historical Archaeological and ... - CBP.gov

time statehood was granted to Michigan, the land was divided into 37 counties. Today, the State
contains 83 counties. Wisconsin followed a similar path to statehood, first becoming part of the
Michigan Territory, then in 1836 forming the majority of the Wisconsin Territory, before finally
entering the union in 1838 as the 30th state (Garfield, 1986a; Garfield, 1986b). Originally
consisting of one large county, by the time statehood was granted, Wisconsin had 29 counties.
There are currently 72 counties across the State. In both Michigan and Wisconsin, the cities,
villages, towns, and townships may have local jurisdiction, depending on population and level of
incorporation.
Social and Cultural
The first waves of immigration into northern Michigan and Wisconsin brought individuals with
largely western European ancestry and were later joined by Germans and Irish. Mining jobs in
the Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin’s Lake Superior shore attracted a number of people from
areas with a tradition of mining, such as Cornwall and Wales in the United Kingdom, as well as
immigrants from Finland and other Scandinavian countries.
1.2.3 EOR REGION
1.2.3.1 State of Minnesota
Contact Period/Exploration/Colonial Period
Beginning in the mid-seventeenth century the French were the first Europeans to explore what is
now Minnesota. These visitors included Claude Allouez and Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut.
As the fur trade became more established during the late seventeenth century and eighteenth
century, French voyageurs established trading posts amid the frontier. The first settlement in
Minnesota was an outpost called Grand Portage near Lake Superior, where the French fur traders
had to make a portage around the rapids of the Pigeon River. Grand Portage became the frontier
headquarters of the North West Company, a dominate fur trading operation. In 1721, the French
erected Fort Beauharnois on Lake Pepin. The Dakota (Sioux) and the Ojibwa (also called
Chippewa) were the two prominent Native American nations in Minnesota from the colonial
period until the middle of the nineteenth century (Eccles, 1997; Heidenreich, 1997; Minnesota
Historical Society, 2011a).
Frontier
The northeastern portion of the state (northeast of the Mississippi River) was included as part of
the original Northwest Territory, under which the jurisdiction of the Ordinance of 1787 applied.
The part of the state south of the Mississippi River was acquired by the United States from
France in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The northwestern portion of the state became
U.S. territory in 1818 as part of a treaty with Britain that established the U.S.-Canadian Border at
the 49th parallel, but border disputes would not be resolved until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty
in 1842.
Fort Snelling (Minneapolis-St. Paul) was the first permanent U.S. settlement in the area in 1819,
and was completed in 1825. The fort overlooked the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota
rivers. Immigration into the region was slow during the first half of the nineteenth century, but,
once the value of the vast forestlands of northern and central Minnesota was recognized,
lumbermen from the eastern states initiated a wave of settlement. This wave was followed by an
Northern Border Activities H-102 July 2012