Turnpike Lands

Turnpike Lands were a group of land tracts granted by the United States Congress to the state of Ohio in 1827 along the path of a proposed road in the northwest corner of the state.

With the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 the Indian Nations ceded southern and eastern Ohio to white settlement. The Treaty of Fort Industry in 1805 moved the boundary westward to a line 120 miles (190 km) west of Pennsylvania, which coincided with the western boundary of the Firelands of the Connecticut Western Reserve. In 1807, the Treaty of Detroit called for the cession of lands northwest of the Maumee River, in Ohio, and mostly in the Michigan Territory. The area between the Maumee River and the 1805 boundary remained Indian Lands, and thus, the United States could not legally build a road connecting settlements in Ohio and the Michigan Territory. This area was also swampy, and would require much engineering effort and funds to cross with a road.

On November 25, 1808, at Brownstown in Michigan Territory, the United States and five nations of Indians signed the Treaty of Brownstown. Article II of the treaty called for the Indian Nations to cede to the United States “…also a tract of land, for a road only, of one hundred twenty feet in weadth, to run southwardly from what is called Lower Sandusky, to the boundary line established by the Treaty of Greenville, with the privilege of taking at all times, such timber and other materials, from the adjacent lands as may be necessary for making and keeping in repair the said road, with the bridges that may be required along the same.”

Lower Sandusky is now called Fremont, Ohio and the boundary line of the Greenville Treaty lies in southern Marion County.

...
Wikipedia