Territorial Road

Territorial Road is a Michigan historical marker in Paw Paw, Van Buren County, dedicated 1959.

Old US-12, Paw Paw

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One of the three great east-west routes of pioneer days, the Territorial Road from Detroit to St. Joe tapped the rich lands of the second “tier” of counties. Approved in 1829, the road was not surveyed through Van Buren County until 1835. Although at first it was only a “blaze and a name,” the route soon was teeming with emigrants and travelers. The Dodge Tavern in Paw Paw, a famed stopping point, was so crowded at times that some weary persons, old-timers said, “offered a dollar for a post to lean against.”

TodayHistorical map

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Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1819 · Ohio & Indiana (H. S. Tanner, 1819) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1849 · Illinois (Mitchell/Cowperthwait, 1849) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1853 · Map of the surveyed part of Michigan (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1854 · A map of the surveyed part of Michigan / by John Farmer ; engraved by S. Stiles & Co. (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
1873 · (Map of Van Buren County, Michigan) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Ohio & Indiana (H. S. Tanner, 1819), 1819, covering the location of Territorial Road, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Ohio & Indiana (H. S. Tanner, 1819), 1819, covering this location. Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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