LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Senate on Tuesday approved Sen. Jonathan Lindsey’s legislation to enable county-level grant funding for surveys and monuments along the Michigan-Indiana border.
“The original border was last surveyed by Congress in the 1800s, prior to Michigan being recognized as a state,” said Lindsey, R-Coldwater. “Both Michigan and Indiana have been working on their respective duties to complete the survey, but unexpected issues have caused a delay in completing the work. My bill simply extends the timeline to get this done and will prevent decades of work from being reset and sent back to square one.”
Formal, easy-to-locate markers were placed upon completion of the initial survey, and the two states had clearly distinguished territories. Many of these markers, however, have been lost to time, causing the original survey lines to become blurred.
Various legal issues, property disputes, Great Lakes preservation responsibilities and even traffic enforcement have been complicated by the unclear state lines and jurisdictions. Both states have worked on revisiting the border line between the two states, though a formal partnership was never fully agreed upon.
Legislation passed and signed into law in 2022 outlined Michigan’s responsibilities and provided funding to complete the joint effort between the two states. However, issues with securing surveying companies became an unexpected hurdle that caused further delay in completing the project.
Lindsey’s bill, Senate Bill 595, would extend the timeline to complete the survey and amend the 2022 law to allow counties to individually survey the border due to the difficulty securing a survey company for the entire project.
“Counties are capable and ready to take this on, and we have the funding available that would allow them to do so,” Lindsey said. “This is a minor amendment of the initial effort that will help get this project across the finish line.”
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