Posted on 11/30/2025 7:08:10 PM PST by Red Badger
A “state line” sign delineates the Michigan-Indiana border in Ray, an unincorporated community about 30 miles east of Sturgis split between the two states. (Bridge photo by Lauren Gibbons)
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* Michigan-Indiana border hasn’t been officially surveyed since the early 1800s, and most official markers have been lost to time
* A commission created to fix the issue has stalled amid difficulties finding surveyors to tackle the full 110-mile project
* State Sen. Jonathan Lindsey, R-Coldwater, hopes his Senate-passed bill will give commissioners the time and tools needed to finish the job
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Despite efforts in recent years to gain clarity, the roughly 110-mile state line between Michigan and Indiana remains blurry as ever.
The last official survey of the dividing line between Michiganders and Hoosiers was conducted in 1827, and wooden markers placed by federal surveyors at that time have largely rotted into the pastoral landscape.
Some surveyors have estimated that the state line generally accepted by locals could be off by a few feet in some areas, creating potential areas of conflict.
Unlike Michigan’s border with Ohio — famously decided by the Toledo War — and the border dispute with Wisconsin that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, no one has ever bothered to contest the dividing line between Michigan and Indiana.
But especially for residents living on or near the border, an official state line would provide needed clarity in the event a dispute ever did come up, said state Sen. Jonathan Lindsey, a Coldwater Republican whose district encompasses the entire Michigan-Indiana border.
“I think this is the type of issue that isn’t a problem until it is,” Lindsey told Bridge Michigan. “And if it becomes a problem, it would be a very big problem.”
In 2022, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed bipartisan legislation authorizing a state commission for resurveying the border, along with an initial $500,000 appropriation to start the job. Indiana officials have similarly been open to a resurvey, and more recently opened the possibility of reviewing its borders with Illinois as well.
Prior to the law’s passage, advocates had been working for decades to get both states interested in the project.
Jack Owens, a longtime land surveyor based in Roscommon, began researching the subject in the early 2000s and eventually assembled a group of volunteer surveyors who met periodically to search for any traces of the old mile markers. Owens died in December 2023.
A marker delineating the Michigan-Indiana border in Ray, an unincorporated community split between the two states (Bridge photo by Lauren Gibbons)
Though his and others’ efforts ultimately resulted in the border commission’s creation, the work has hit a snag. Despite putting out two requests for proposals, the state didn’t get any bites from private surveying companies willing and able to take on the large project.
“We didn’t receive any qualifying bids,” Andrew Brisbo, director of Bureau of Construction Codes for Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, told lawmakers during an October Senate committee hearing.
“We went back and discussed with the commission whether it might be a better approach to provide the funding to the county surveying programs on the border,” he continued. “They have the capacity to do the work, and they can just build it into those programs in order to get the work done.”
In 2024, a survey conducted by DLZ and presented to the commission determined at least 100 mile posts along the border need to be re-established. The firm identified 10 potential areas of conflict that would need to be cleared up between the two states.
Lindsey, the state senator, this year introduced legislation that would allow local surveyors in each of the five Michigan counties bordering Indiana to take on a section of the state line and split up the project into more manageable chunks.
His bill, which unanimously passed the state Senate last month and is currently pending in the House, would give the commission another four years to complete the project, extending the project’s timeline from Jan. 1, 2026 to Jan. 1, 2030.
Brisbo estimated the surveying work could be completed by county surveyors within a couple of years, leaving time to allow officials in both states to reconcile any discrepancies before the proposed 2030 deadline.
Though most of the border is covered by rural farmland, a handful of communities directly straddle state lines — including the unincorporated community of Ray, where residents live in either Michigan or Indiana depending on what side of the main street they’re on.
Proponents of the decades-long effort view an updated border survey as a preventive measure that would deter confusion or legal disputes in areas that don’t clearly fall in one state or the other.
Once finished, the location of the border line would be known down to the nearest couple of centimeters, and new markers would be installed to keep the state line from getting lost to time again.
“We have a positive goodwill and desire on both sides of the border to just formalize this and get it done,” Lindsey said.
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Is this a revenue issue or a full employment act for surveyors?
I believe Michigan gave Indiana enough of it’s southern border to allow Indiana to have a connection to Lake Michigan. Indiana Dunes is a great beach after you hike up and over the dunes.
Surveyors didn’t want the job, too long, 110 miles............
What’s that got to do with the article?
What is the driving factor here?
Who’s unhappy with their own property lines?
Ok ... as a Hoosier expat, I’m curious. I suppose the question is how the border was defined originally.
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois had an epic, decades long battle with Kentucky over the state line, which was originally defined as the north bank of the Ohio River. Since the Ohio River got the Corps of Engineers treatment long ago, with locks and dams for navigation, it has not been a natural river for a loooong time.
That was a very minor issue as long as the friction arose from Kentucky revenooers prowling the north bank to make sure nobody was fishing in Kentucky’s river without a Kentucky fishing license, or putting in a small boat without paying Kentucky for the privilege.
But then Kentucky started getting greedy on water intake and discharges, with Kentucky running shakedown rackets on Ohio, Indiana and Illinois cities, towns, power plants, barge loading stations, and industrial development. It eventually went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the border was now out in midstream, so Kentucky couldn’t extort tribute. I.e., Kentucky got too greedy and got slapped down.
But what’s the issue between Indiana and Michigan? How was the border defined originally? They had precise surveys at the time, so I’m reasonably sure it wasn’t one of those “straight line due west from the big oak tree in Cletus Smith’s cornfield” things.
They used wooden markers apparently that have long since rotted away..............
Land that has wandered into Michigan: “Indiana wants me, but I can’t go back there...”
Yes, but the legislative language and/or Indian treaty line that established the border in the first place would have had a firm definition. The original surveyors would have taken their bearings from that. It’s a bit odd that they used wooden markers rather than stone for the purpose, which is why a new survey is needed. The immediate problem appears to be a matter of simply rounding up the money for the survey, given that there is no current dispute that needs resolution.
Pay me the $500k (or even half of it) and I’ll gladly go up there with some spray paint and start mapping out a border. It can’t be that difficult if nobody’s fighting over it.
My gripe is with those little enclaves created when the boundary rivers changed course, but the state boundaries didn’t.
US Census Bureau TIGER does a “Boundary and Annexation Survey.” I am not sure what happens if the boundary they get from Indiana county officials differs from the one they get from Michigan county officials.
I’d be inclined to accept the TIGER line unless someone can prove it incorrect.
Ohio had a state line problem with Michigan way back when. It got resolved. Remember Toledo.
And sometimes the change in the river’s course is courtesy of the Corps of Engineers. I can only wonder how many horseshoe bends on the Mississippi the Corps eliminated.
A 5-inch error over 110 miles is pretty tight. A 5-inch error between monuments not so good as that 5-inches would propogate through the remaining survey route.
Precise, yes. Accurate? That takes judgement and evaluation of all evidence available. You can’t take ownership of someone’s land away because your measuring stick is different than the guys’ 150 year ago.
The time consuming part is the research and recovery of potential benchmarks. Every Record of Survey, plat, and other land subdivision records will need to be reviewed. And if the border changes along route, it would require a new record of survey and monuments set.
Most Land Surveyors don’t like their previous work to be overturned and they could be liable for changes.
Paladin2 wrote: “Is this a revenue issue or a full employment act for surveyors?”
This can be a real issue for things like taxation or who owns what property.
It’s fairly common. For example, the border between Tn. and Al. looks like a straight line until you zoom in enough, then it looks like the blade of a saw.
Some of the older property deeds includ statements like, ‘on a line between the pine tree and the oak tree’, neither of which still exist today.
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