The 1785 Land Ordinance organized the surveying of land into regular square six-mile townships and square one-mile sections. Using the 1807 Treaty of Detroit land cessions, Surveyor General Edward Tiffin established the Michigan Meridian, a north-south line. On September 29, 1815, Benjamin Hough began surveying north from Fort Defiance, Ohio, while Alexander Holmes began from a point 78 miles west of Detroit. Wet land forced Holmes to turn east and then north before beginning the base line east; he quit that fall, but Hough completed the meridian and marked the initial point in 1816. Tiffin then suspended surveying in 1816 because he believed the land was poor, unfit for military purposes, and not worth the expense of surveying. Michigan Territory Governor Lewis Cass ordered surveys near Detroit to resume in 1817, and the opening of the Erie Canal in 1821 increased industry and settlement, adding to the need for further surveys. In 1824, Joseph Wampler reran the last twelve miles of the meridian north to meet the base line, which he had extended west about eighteen miles, and for unknown reasons he marked a second initial point 935.88 feet south of the first. Because land had already been surveyed and sold from the first point, surveyors used both initial points, the northern point for land east of the meridian and the southern point for land westward. The Michigan Survey continued through 1856 from these dual initial points near where Jackson and Ingham Counties meet.