I have no hesitation to say that it would be to the advantage of Government to remove every inhabitant of the Territory, pay for the improvements, and reduce them to ashes, leaving nothing but the Garrison posts. From my observation, the Territory appears to be not worth defending, and merely a den for Indians and traitors. The banks of the Detroit River are handsome, but nine-tenths of the land in the Territory is unfit for cultivation.

McArthur’s remarks were made in a private letter, but if many American soldiers who served in Michigan during the war shared his view of the area they could have been the source of some damaging word-of-mouth publicity for the territory when they returned to their homes.
    As the fur trade declined and trapping operations moved westward, farming grew more important. Its early development, however, was deterred by a number of factors: the continuing presence of hostile fur traders, the prospect of British rule, and a series of unfavorable land survey reports kept many prospective farmers from coming into the territory. For example, the 1816 Tiffin survey described Michigan as a land of unhealthful swamps and a sandy waste that was wholly unsuitable for agriculture. Such misleading reports were widely circulated and did little to encourage the sale of land.
    The disparaging report on Michigan's land and agricultural potential came from Edward Tiffin, surveyor general of the United States. Congress had provided the veterans of the War of 1812 with two million acres of land as a reward for their service, and Tiffin sent surveyors north from Defiance, Ohio, into the southeastern part of Michigan in the fall of 1815 to see whether the land there was suitable for this purpose. The surveyors examined land in the Monroe County area (where drainage has always been a problem, particularly in the wet fall season). Their report to Tiffin, therefore, was an unfavorable one, and Tiffin, in turn, reported to President Madison early in 1816 that Michigan apparently consisted of swamps, lakes, and poor, sandy soil not worth the cost of surveying. He declared that in his opinion not more than one acre in a hundred, or perhaps in a thousand, could be cultivated. As a result, Congress designated lands in Illinois and Missouri for the veterans. In several ways Governor Cass helped undo Michigan’s bad publicity. When he read Tiffin’s report, which was circulated among government officials even though it was not released to the general public, Cass insisted that Tiffin send his surveyors back into Michigan to take a second look at the land.
    How much damage Tiffin’s report did to the reputation of Michigan is not clear. Most historians have assumed that it was largely because of Tiffin’s report that there was little interest in settling in Michigan’s interior until the late 1820's. A reading of the report would unquestionably have discouraged anyone from coming to Michigan, but one historian has shown that Tiffin’s report was not widely publicized. It was not published in a form that would have made it available to the general public until the 1830s, by which time people were flocking to Michigan by the thousands. Furthermore, reports about Michigan that were published and that were widely circulated in the postwar years presented a very favorable picture of Michigan. The Detroit Gazette carried many favorable articles concerning the character of the territory, rebutting any derogatory opinions that might be circulating. These articles were widely copied in eastern papers. Three visitors to Detroit in 1818, one an authority on agriculture, gave glowing accounts of Michigan lands in books and articles printed in the East. Geography books of the time also generally lauded Michigan’s potential for agriculture.
    In whatever way prospective pioneers may have appraised the available information on the quality of Michigan lands, they may also have been discouraged by rumors that the climate in the Detroit area was unhealthy. Hundreds of soldiers had died of disease at Detroit during the fall and winter of 1813. The most common ailment was malaria, which the people of the time attributed to the prevalence of swamps and bogs. In 1823 "intermittent fever" and typhoid fever forced the abandonment of Fort Saginaw. In the East the warning about unhealthful conditions in Michigan was put into rhyme:

Don’t go to Michigan, that land of ills;
The word means ague, fever, and chills

But go they did, in droves.  And the influx of people to Michigan was termed "Michigan Fever".

This material has been compiled for educational use only, and may not be reproduced without permission.  One copy may be printed for personal use.  Please contact Randall Schaetzl (soils@msu.edu) for more information or permissions.