Northwest Ordinance 1787: Ohio River Territory, Not Great Lakes/Snake River

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 created the Northwest Territory—the region bounded by:

• South: Ohio River
• West: Mississippi River
• North: Great Lakes (but not land north of them)
• East: Pennsylvania boundary

What It Did NOT Include

• Land north of the Great Lakes (British Canada)
• Land west of the Mississippi (Louisiana Territory, later acquisitions)
• Land west of the Snake River (Oregon Country, far beyond)

Key Provisions

• Statehood process (3-5 states eventually: OH, IN, IL, MI, WI)
• Bill of rights, public education, slavery prohibition
• Township survey system (6x6 mile grids)
• Minimum population thresholds for governance stages

The Ordinance established the template for westward expansion and territorial governance, but its geographic scope was specifically the Ohio-Mississippi-Great Lakes triangle—not the broader regions sometimes attributed to it.