By Bob Wessel
A trip from Petersburg to Blissfield is measured in minutes today. This was not the case when George Giles made the trip in 1826.
Giles was obliged to cut a 13-mile-long road through the wilderness and wetlands along the River Raisin to reach his new home in Blissfield.
Anyone looking across the lower eastern part of Lenawee County over the land between the River Raisin and the Ohio state line would never know that this flat picturesque area did not start out as the rich and productive farmland we see today. This land was once an untamed swamp, home to a wide range of wildlife and providing a fertile hunting ground for native Americans and newly arriving white settlers.