![]() ĭuring the multi-day session to determine a new location for the state capital, many cities, including Ann Arbor, Marshall, and Jackson, lobbied hard to win this designation. There was also concern with Detroit's strong influence over Michigan politics, being the state's largest city as well as the capital city. The United States had recaptured the city in 1813, but these events led to the dire need to have the center of government relocate away from hostile British territory. The settlement of fewer than 20 people would remain dormant until the winter of 1847 when the state constitution required the capital be moved from Detroit to a more central and safer location in the state's interior many were concerned about Detroit's proximity to British-controlled Canada, which had captured Detroit in the War of 1812. Many in the group, too disappointed to stay, ended up settling around what is now metropolitan Lansing. 16 men bought plots in the nonexistent city, and upon reaching the area later that year found they had been scammed. They told the New Yorkers this new "city" had an area of 65 blocks, a church and a public and academic square. Nevertheless, the brothers went back to Lansing, New York, to sell plots for the town that did not exist. This land lay in a floodplain and was underwater during the majority of the year. In the winter of 1835 and early 1836, two brothers from New York plotted the area now known as REO Town just south of downtown Lansing and named it "Biddle City". Grand River overlooking Lansing River Trail Bridge There would be no roads to this area for decades to come. It was the last of the county's townships to be surveyed, and the land was not offered for sale until October 1830. The land that was to become Lansing was surveyed as "Township 4 North Range 2 West" in February 1827 in what was then dense forest. ![]() The first recorded person of European descent to travel through the area that is now Lansing was British fur trader Hugh Heward and his French-Canadian team on April 24, 1790, while canoeing the Grand River.
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