1700s Detroit: Inland Exploration

[Patrick]

I've always wondered about how SE Michigan was explored in the 1700s. Much has been written about Detroit and its ribbon farms along the river. Less seems to have been written about early exploration of areas that are now Macomb and Oakland Counties.

I do know that Moravian Road was one of the first inland roads in the area. It linked up with the Moravian settlement on the Clinton River. We had a quick thread about Moravian Road in 2006:

http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/62684/89245.html?1166650284

So did the French or British explore the area inland? I read somewhere that a British party "discovered" Royal Oak, but can't recall where I read that. I also know that parties were sent north to the Pine River by Port Huron for a certain kind of lumber. I am talking pre 1800s....was much known about the region and its geography outside of the river settlements? Perhaps Burton covered this in his many books?

[Hermod]

Southern Oakland and Macomb counties were considered to be rather useless swamps. The earliest settlers there [[from New York in the early 19th century) despaired of getting their wagons across the swamp. They went up Lake St Clair to the mouth of the Clinton River and moved up the river valley founding Utica and Rochester.

[Lowell]

Indian trails and rivers were the key. Every major road and many minor ones in Michigan were trails. I'd bet Moravian was one too. Combined with rivers and streams which provided an energy source in the form of water and saw mills they formed the basis for settlements.

Farmington is a prime example. It was at the confluence of the Orchard Lake, Shiawassee and Grand River Trails with the Upper Rouge crossing all and providing the water and energy for several mills for the New York Quakers who arrived via the recently opened Erie Canal.

[EastsideAl]

The water access and swampy nature of much of the area around here was one of the driving reasons for the original French entry into this area, due to the burgeoning fur industry. Well before large scale settlement for agriculture and industry, like logging [[which didn't really start in earnest until the early 1800s), most of the exploration of the interior by Europeans in this area was driven by fur trapping and trading.

Swampy areas on both sides of the river, and indeed throughout the Great Lakes, were favored by the French for the pelts they could obtain there. Some places, like the far downriver area down through Monroe County still show traces of this era. And even more so on the Canadian side.

Some of my distant ancestors were around here in the mid-late 1700s on what is now the Canadian side, trapping in the River Canard area near Amherstburg, and later in the Thames River delta on the southeastern corner of Lake St. Clair, before marrying crazy Scotsmen and 'settling down' to farming, and other insanity, in the area near Hamilton.

[Chinman]

while i grew up in roseville, my father was born and raised on east side of detroit and used to tell us stories of st. clare shores being a swamp land that was filled in to make manageable land use as was most of the east side.
visit elmwood cemetary to understand the topography of the area's land before it was graded and leveled to accommodate homes and businesses.

[Hermod]

The gravel in the glacial moraine which covers much of northern Oakland County was quarried to fill in the swamps of southern Oakland and Macomb.

Woodward and Gratiot were originally military roads. After the War of 1812, the military slowly cut back on their garrisons in Michigan and quit maintaining the roads which fell into disuse until enterprising companies began to build "plank roads" to collect the tolls.

[sumas]

I swear I am getting senile. I know the answers to your questions and can't pull it out. I'll try. Gratiot was called Military Road, it is listed as that on the abstract to my house. Most early "roads" were Indian Trails. Woodward was not a military road. The Mack brothers were commissioned to build it but it stopped at 8 mile because of swamps. Michigan was a military road. Most mapping was done by the French and in fact Joesph Campau owned much of Michigan. Plank roads were enacted by law I believe in 1846, but don't quote me. Jefferson was a plank road too.

I have boxes and boxes of research in the basement but can't recall all that info off the top of my head anymore. Sorry for not being more helpfull.

[sumas]

while i grew up in roseville, my father was born and raised on east side of detroit and used to tell us stories of st. clare shores being a swamp land that was filled in to make manageable land use as was most of the east side.
visit elmwood cemetary to understand the topography of the area's land before it was graded and leveled to accommodate homes and businesses.

Nice memory, My aunt lived in SCS, Harper woods and SCS were swampy we had great fun catching polliwogs in the spring, we even had a bathtub boat that we would pole around. The gentleman we inherited our house from grew up in Harper Woods, one of his chores was to set traps.

[Hermod]

The Military Road was called the "Gratiot Road" because it went from Fort Detroit to Fort Gratiot. The first plank road was completed from Detroit to Mt Clemens by the Detroit and Erin Plank Road Company in 1850.

The 'Saginaw Road" was begun in 1818 with military funding running from Detroit to Pontiac [[Woodward Ave) and on to Saginaw. The military road from Detroit to Fort Gratiot was begun in 1827.

In 1859, the Grand Trunk from Detroit to Port Huron was completed. In 1895, the interurban line [[Rapid Railway) was completed from Detroit to Mt Clemens and through service to Port Huron was completed in 1900.

[sumas]

I adore history. Still question Woodward as a military road but why not. Most roads were military in nature early on.

[Hermod]

I adore history. Still question Woodward as a military road but why not. Most roads were military in nature early on.

Detroit-Toledo was originally built as a military road.

[sumas]

Detroit-Toledo was originally built as a military road.

Would that be where I75 is now or Telegraph Rd?

[Gistok]

To anyone who has traveled the side streets of St. Clair Shores... they are among the roughest in metro Detroit for a good reason... since St. Clair Shores was once a swamp, they drained it... and what the city is today is a large ocean of clay... that shifts and moves about. So the streets are always shifting with lots of bumps... and lawns...well they have lots of hills and valleys that also move about on all that clay.

[Hermod]

To anyone who has traveled the side streets of St. Clair Shores... they are among the roughest in metro Detroit for a good reason... since St. Clair Shores was once a swamp, they drained it... and what the city is today is a large ocean of clay... that shifts and moves about. So the streets are always shifting with lots of bumps... and lawns...well they have lots of hills and valleys that also move about on all that clay.

In Macomb County south of 14 Mile, there are a lot of leaking, wet, and damp basements.

[DetroitPlanner]

Parts of Outer Drive on the West side was a Military Rd. Check out how it angles through St. Hedwig's cemetary.
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=St+He...gan+48127&z=14

[Hermod]

Parts of Outer Drive on the West side was a Military Rd. Check out how it angles through St. Hedwig's cemetary.
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=St+He...gan+48127&z=14

I don't know the exact route of the Toledo-Detroit military road, but it msy very ewell have come up Telegraph and angled over West Outer Drive to Ford Road then into the city.

[DetroitPlanner]

I don't know the exact route of the Toledo-Detroit military road, but it msy very ewell have come up Telegraph and angled over West Outer Drive to Ford Road then into the city.

I doubt it is the same. There was a fort in Dearborn near the intersection of Michigan Ave and Military. Many of the old buildings still exist. To overshare, my mom's oncologist is in one of them!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command...orn,_Michigan)

[sumas]

Honest I love history, These threads so fascinate me.

[EastsideAl]

Would that be where I75 is now or Telegraph Rd?

From what I can tell from historical accounts and old maps, the military road to the south was what now runs out of Detroit as West Jefferson, which was once called the River Road.

This road today has several different names along the way. It's called Biddle in Wyandotte, then becomes Jefferson again down to the Wayne/Monroe county line at the mouth of the Huron River. South of there in Berlin Township it's called U.S. Turnpike, then it becomes North Dixie Highway down into Monroe. Coming out of Monroe it's S. Dixie Hwy. to the Ohio line, where it becomes Detroit Ave. through Toledo. Finally it becomes Anthony Wayne Trail near what was its terminus across the Maumee River from Ft. Meigs in Perrysburg.

Here you can see the road in an 1831 map from the MSU Libraries site:

Attachment 21265

http://img.lib.msu.edu/exhibits/map/...s/burr1831.htm

One thing to keep in mind in looking at this map is that the Michigan-Ohio border is south of where it is now, as this is before Ohio took what became known as "the Toledo strip"around 1836 [[Toledo itself came into existence in 1833).

[Zulu Warrior]

I doubt it is the same. There was a fort in Dearborn near the intersection of Michigan Ave and Military. Many of the old buildings still exist. To overshare, my mom's oncologist is in one of them!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command...orn,_Michigan)

The Detroit-Toledo Road is another name for Dix Road....

[townonenorth]

To anyone who has traveled the side streets of St. Clair Shores... they are among the roughest in metro Detroit for a good reason... since St. Clair Shores was once a swamp, they drained it... and what the city is today is a large ocean of clay... that shifts and moves about. So the streets are always shifting with lots of bumps... and lawns...well they have lots of hills and valleys that also move about on all that clay.

Not as far as what the original surveyors saw, anyway. The legend below in this image will tell you the conditions as found in the original survey. Not that wet, by comparison to other places, I'll tell you. There's not a swamp listed in this survey. Wet, maybe, and a couple of sections listed as marshy, but overall nice property. And I've seen swamps in other places clearly delineated. This is St. Clair Shores, more or less.

http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/detail...ailsTabIndex=1

[Gistok]

Not as far as what the original surveyors saw, anyway. The legend below in this image will tell you the conditions as found in the original survey. Not that wet, by comparison to other places, I'll tell you. There's not a swamp listed in this survey. Wet, maybe, and a couple of sections listed as marshy, but overall nice property. And I've seen swamps in other places clearly delineated. This is St. Clair Shores, more or less.

Wetlands, swamps, floodplains... nearly 3,000 wetland acres have been lost in my neck of the woods since 1873. And that's as far back as I could find... more likely prior to that.

http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu/_documen...20Wetlands.pdf

Don't get too hung up on my word "swamp"....

[sumas]

Not as far as what the original surveyors saw, anyway. The legend below in this image will tell you the conditions as found in the original survey. Not that wet, by comparison to other places, I'll tell you. There's not a swamp listed in this survey. Wet, maybe, and a couple of sections listed as marshy, but overall nice property. And I've seen swamps in other places clearly delineated. This is St. Clair Shores, more or less.

http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/detail...ailsTabIndex=1

I am curious, what do you call an area that floods in the spring to about 3 to 4 ft.

This is an honest question.

AS mentioned, We poled, around in a bathtub. Played tag running on fallen trees. trust me. if tagged you swam to the nearest fallen log. To of course start again.

That area was all drained for I 94 to come through.

[sumas]

Don't go down river much anymore more, but I was highly amused at the name of an adult bar on Dix......Chicks on Dix. Might have been Chix [[spelling,)??.

well we didn't stop but I was amused.

[Detroitnerd]

Don't go down river much anymore more, but I was highly amused at the name of an adult bar on Dix......Chicks on Dix. Might have been Chix [[spelling,)??.

well we didn't stop but I was amused.

I once knew a gal who lived on Champaign and Dix.