Erie Triangle

Erie Triangle
Nickname:  The Triangle Lands
Black line indicates southern border of Erie Triangle within Erie County
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
County	Erie
Largest city	Erie, Pennsylvania
Purchased	1792
Area
• Total	202,187 acres (81,822 ha)
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)

The Erie Triangle is a roughly 300-square-mile (780-square-kilometre) tract of American land that was the subject of several competing colonial-era claims. It was eventually acquired by the U.S. federal government and sold to Pennsylvania so that the state would have access to a freshwater port on Lake Erie. The Erie Triangle land makes up a large portion of present-day Erie County, Pennsylvania.

Background

Cornerstone of the Erie Triangle

Most of northwestern Pennsylvania came under American control following the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix with the Iroquois Confederacy. The following year, a boundary dispute between New York and Pennsylvania erupted. Following a surveying effort by Andrew Ellicott representing the Pennsylvanians and James Clinton and Simeon DeWitt representing the New Yorkers, the western edge of New York was set at 20 miles (32 km) east of Pennsylvania's Presque Isle, a small peninsula off the coast of Erie, Pennsylvania. However, this left an unclaimed area, which came to be known as the Triangle Lands.^{[citation needed]}

The Triangle Lands problematically fell under neither New York's nor Pennsylvania's charter, while both Connecticut and Massachusetts also spoke up with claims derived from their original colonial "sea to shining sea" grants.^{[citation needed]}

Of the three competing claimants (Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts), only Pennsylvania was landlocked, except for a very tiny strip of coastline 3.75 miles (6.04 km) in length. Following some pressure from the new federal government, all four states surrendered their claims to that entity, which then, in 1792, sold the final rights to the 202,187 acres (81,822 ha) of land to Pennsylvania for $151,640.25 (75¢/acre).^[a][2] The Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy released the land to Pennsylvania in January 1789 for payments of $2,000 from Pennsylvania^[b] and $1,200 from the federal government.^[c][3] The Seneca Nation separately settled land claims against Pennsylvania in February 1791 for $800.^[4][3][d] This was accomplished without the approval of the federal government and in violation of the Contract Clause^[5] of the United States Constitution which reserved the right to make treaties to the federal government.^[6] With this access to the Great Lakes, Pennsylvania was persuaded to accept the western boundary established by the Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory following passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787.^{[citation needed]}

The Erie Triangle is often described as a "tab" or "chimney" attached to the Keystone State. The water off the coast of the Erie Triangle is known as the Graveyard of Lake Erie because of the large number of shipwrecks that occurred in the area's stormy waters in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was also the site of a preliminary battle between forces that participated in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The battle itself took place in the Lake Erie Islands, at the western end of the lake, off the coast of Ohio.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Twin Tiers
  • Northern Tier
  • Southern Tier
• New York–Pennsylvania border
• Pennamite–Yankee War

Notes

1. equivalent to $3,574,620 in 2023 ($17.68 per acre)^[1]
2. equivalent to $51,149 in 2023^[1]
3. equivalent to $30,689 in 2023^[1]
4. equivalent to $19,192 in 2023^[1]

References

1. 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
2. Bates 1884, p. 196, 200.
3. Bates 1884, p. 199.
4. Whitman, Benjamin (1987) [1896, S. B. Nelson]. Nelson's Biographical Dictionary and Historical Reference Book of Erie County, Pennsylvania. Vol. I. Don Mills. pp. 103–104.
5. Works related to Article One of the United States Constitution, Article I, section 10, clause 1 at Wikisource
6. Linklater, Andro (May 26, 2009). The Fabric of America. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-8027-1850-1.

Sources

• Bates, Samuel P. (1884). History of Erie County, Pennsylvania. Chicago: Warner, Beers and Company.

External links

• Explore PA History

Further reading

• Bilharz, Joy Ann (1998). The Allegany Senecas and Kinzua Dam: Forced Relocation Through Two Generations. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-6203-5.
• Gallo, Marcus (2018). "Improving Independence: The Struggle over Land Surveys in Northwestern Pennsylvania in 1794". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 142 (2): 131–161. doi:10.5215/pennmaghistbio.142.2.0131. JSTOR 10.5215/pennmaghistbio.142.2.0131.
• Lechner, Carl B. (January 1992). "The Erie Triangle: The Final Link between Philadelphia and the Great Lakes". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 116 (1): 59–85. JSTOR 20092671.
• Smith, Helene; Swetnam, George (1991). A Guidebook to Historic Western Pennsylvania (2d ed.). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 256–271. ISBN 978-0-8229-3630-5.
• Wilkinson, Norman B. (1979). Land policy and speculation in Pennsylvania, 1779-1800: a test of the New Democracy. The Management of public lands in the United States. New York: Arno Press. ISBN 978-0-405-11357-4.

42.07°N 80.1°W / 42.07; -80.1