U.P. Day in History by Pasty Central , October 30th
In the mid 1800s there were a series of Federal Laws designed with the goal of eradicating all swamps, which a century later would become known as wetlands. The same Swamp Land Act that deeded the Everglades to the State of Florida also transferred land ownership of swampy parcels in the Upper Peninsula to the State of Michigan.
The State put into place a program of selling these lands at deeply discounted prices, if the developer would commit to draining, reclaiming, and developing the property for resale. As a result of constitutional challenges, on this day in 1889 the program in Upper Michigan was suspended.
Almost a century later – recognizing their ecological value – these policies were reversed by the Wetland Protection act of 1972.