The map that changed the world

When Benjamin Franklin helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris in 1783 that ended America's Revolutionary War, he used a map called The Mitchell Map, to fix the international boundary.

The Mitchell Map was created by a gentleman named John Mitchell, and one of the interesting things about him was that he was not a professional map maker or geographer. Instead, he was a physician and an amateur (albeit enthusiastic) botanist.

Why should you care about his interest in botany? Mitchell eventually became somewhat of an expert in exotic plants, and his interest in the subject caused him to meet some influential people in government. One of these people was a fellow named George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax.

Halifax is important because he was appointed President of the Board of Trade and Plantations by the British government in 1748. The position was basically in charge of promoting trade in the New World. It was his job to make sure Britain made money and controlled the region.

Britain wasn't the only ones interested in the region, of course. The French had the same idea, and lets not forget the Spanish, Dutch, and Native people.

Anyway, Halifax was so impressed with Mitchell that he asked Mitchell to make him a map of North America, which Mitchell, the physician and botanist, completed in 1750. The map was titled "A Map of British and French Dominion in North America," and was heavily skewed to show British dominance, which isn't surprising.

Most scholars believe it was also intended to show the British that there was a significant French threat in the region, probably because Halifax advocated war with the French, or, at least he thought it was inevitable.

The map was reprinted in 1755, and even though there were heavy criticism of it and it was revised several times up until Mitchell's death in 1768, it was the primary map of North America when Ben Franklin got hold of to negotiate peace with the British.

Now, here's why all this is important to Iron Range history. There were several different Mitchell maps used during negotiations which showed different kinds of boundaries. One area of dispute was the Iron Range.

The Range was very nearly a part of what would become Canada, and, given the region's enormous (but then unknown) natural resources, the future of the nation could have looked vastly different if it hadn't been for a crude map, Ben Franklin's famous red pen and ignorance on everyone's part about what was under those trees on Minnesota's Iron Range.