r/oldmaps

In 1835, Ohio and the Michigan Territory clashed over a narrow strip of land containing the growing city of Toledo, mobilizing militias in a border dispute known as the Toledo War. This article explores how conflicting maps, political maneuvering, and an unusual federal compromise ultimately gave Ohio Toledo while Michigan received the western Upper Peninsula.

A few years ago, I created a large-scale map of New Bedford by stitching together detailed survey maps from 1913. My goal was simple: I wanted to be able to zoom in and see individual streets, buildings, and points of interest, then zoom back out and see the city as a whole, without having to switch between separate map plates.

The resulting image was enormous, though, and at the time it was never especially practical to use. I finally got around to importing it into GIS software and georeferencing it, matching points on the historical map to their real-world coordinates so the entire thing could be overlaid accurately in Google Earth.

The result turned out pretty cool. As far as I know, this may be the most detailed single, continuous map of New Bedford from that period, rather than a collection of separate plates or maps at different scales.