On September 23, 1879, the city of Detroit purchased Belle Island with the hope of creating a grand park that might eventually rival New York City’s Central Park.
The rest of the story:
The Pottawotami Indians who lived along the Detroit River were the first to claim ownership to the island in the Detroit River. They called it Wah-nah-be-zee (White Swan). As the story is told, the Indians erected a statue in honor of the Great Spirit Manitou along the banks of the Detroit River. When the idol was discovered by priests accompanying LaSalle’s exploration party in 1699, the destroyed it. The Indians returned to find their holy spot desecrated, and after gathering the pieces of the statue, set off for the island. There they scattered pieces of the relic, and as the fragments landed, they turned into rattlesnakes. Manitou felt this would protect him from the white man.
When Antoine de Cadillac arrived in 1701, he was followed by many French settlers, who saw the island as a valuable piece of real estate. Legend has it that the French turned herds of pigs loose to eat the rattlesnakes. The reality may well be that the French used the island to confine hogs and other animals from theft by the Indians. Regardless, the island became knows as Ile de Cochons (or Hog Island). For a time, the island was used for grazing livestock.
Ownership of the island changed hands a number of times between 1762 and 1879. First the French, then the British, claimed ownership (in keeping with the possession of Detroit). McDougall is believed to be the first individual who owned the island, purchasing it in 1769. William Macomb purchased Belle Isle from George McDougall in 1793. In 1817, Macomb sold the island to Barnabas Campeau, whose descendants sold it to the City of Detroit in 1879 for the sum of $200,000. Many Detroiters opposed the purchase, objecting to the price.
In more recent times, the state of Michigan has taken over Belle Island as a state park and has begun updating facilities.
Source: Michigan Every Day.
For more information, see
Detroit’s Belle Isle : island park gem / Michael Rodriguez and Thomas Featherstone. Chicago, IL : Arcadia Pub., c2003.
Island in the city : Belle Isle, Detroit’s beautiful island : how Belle Isle changed Detroit forever / compiled and written by Janet Anderson ; [cover and book design, Janet Adnerson with assistance from Robert Anderson, Jr. ; graphics, Ann Bentson]. [Detroit : Heitman-Garand Co.?], c2001.
History of the Park by Belle Isle Conservancy.
Note: Mich-Again’s Day cites September 25, 1879 as the day the City of Detroit paid $200,000 to several private owners and purchased Belle Isle to, as the Free Press reported, “insure a magnificent park to Detroit for all time to come.”
The Detroit Lions, previously known as the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans, played their first National Football League game, beating the New York Giants 9-0 at the University of Detroit stadium before a crowd of 12,000. During that season, the Lions won their first 10 games and hosted the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving Day, beginning a holiday home-game tradition that continues to this day.
Sources :
Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
The Spirit of Detroit is a city monument with a large bronze statue created by Marshall Fredericks and located at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan.
It was commissioned in 1955 for a cost of $58,000 (equivalent to $415 thousand in 2016), and dedicated on September 23, 1958. In its left hand, the large seated figure holds a gilt bronze sphere emanating rays to symbolize God. The people in the figure’s right hand are a family group symbolizing all human relationships. The 26-foot (7.9 m) sculpture was the largest cast bronze statue since the Renaissance when it was first installed. It was cast in Oslo, Norway.
On the wall behind the sculpture the inscription 2 Corinthians (3:17) “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,” along with both the symbols of the city and of the county. On the plaque in front of the statue gives the inscription: “The artist expresses the concept that God, through the spirit of man is manifested in the family, the noblest human relationship.”
The Spirit of Detroit is often seen wearing Detroit’s professional team’s jerseys if a particular team is in the playoffs. Similarly, during a visit from the Three Tenors, the statue wore a tuxedo. The statue has become a symbol of the City of Detroit, appearing on logos for many of Detroit’s city departments.
The City of Detroit and Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, located on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University, will be hosting a 60th anniversary celebration May 12th from 6 to 10 p.m.
All proceeds from the event will go to Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum. For more information, see marshallfredericks.org
Sources:
Spirit of Detroit wikipedia entry
The Spirit of Detroit entry in the Encyclopedia of Detroit.
Aleanna Siacon, “60th Birthday Celebration for Spirit of Detroit is Set”, Detroit Free Press, March 27, 2018.
Cadillac, long the king of Detroit’s auto brands, is abandoning Motown.
General Motors Co. GM -0.66% said on Tuesday that its struggling luxury brand will move 50 key employees and its headquarters to New York next year amid a wider effort to carve Cadillac out as a stand-alone business unit with more autonomy. Long run from Detroit, GM’s brass feels being in Manhattan will help Cadillac better reach luxury buyers.
The Cadillac move to New York has been discussed among GM’s brass for several months, but Mr. de Nysschen pulled the trigger on the relocation shortly after taking his post. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, speaking at an event on Tuesday, said “you wish that wouldn’t happen from a Michigan perspective,” but noted GM and other auto makers continue to house massive research and development operations in his state.
For the full article, see Jeff Bennett and John D. Stoll, “Cadillac Seeks Brighter Future in New York; Headquarters Move Comes With Reorganization of Luxury Brand’s Management”, Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2014.
Treaty signed : September 24, 1819.
Treaty Proclamation by the President of the United States : March 25, 1820
Placed into law as 7 Stat. 203.
The Treaty of Saginaw, also known as the Treaty with the Chippewa, was made between General (and Territorial Governor) Lewis Cass and Chief John Okemos, Chief Wasso and other Native American tribes of the Great Lakes region (principally the Ojibwe, but also the Ottawa and Potawatomi) on this day in 1819. Over 6 million acres, a third of the lower peninsula of Michigan was opened for legal white settlement by the treaty.
Sources :
YouTube video by Dennis Morris, July 31, 2016, 12:30 min.
Treaty of Saginaw Wikipedia entry
1819 Saginaw Cession and Treaty. A chapter from the Geography of Michigan and the Great Lakes Region, GEO333, Michigan State University.
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College: Ojibwe History ACT 31 Website
Saginaw Treaty of 1819 Map courtesy of the Bay Journal.
Indian Reservations and Treaty Cessions Related to Michigan. Compiled by Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University. To find out information about specific treaties, just click on one of the numbers on the map (which corresponds to the treaty) or click on one of the links at the bottom.
- 1. Greenville Treaty,1795
- 2. Detroit Treaty, 1807
- 3. Foot of the Rapids Treaty, 1817
- 4. Saginaw Treaty, 1819
- 5. Sault St. Marie, 1820
- 6. Chicago Treaty, 1821
- 7. Carey Mission, 1828
- 8. Chicago Treaty, 1833
- 9. Washington Treaty, 1836
- 10. Cedar Point Treaty, 1836
- 11. La Pointe Treaty, 1842
Treaty signed : September 24, 1819.
Treaty Proclamation by the President of the United States : March 25, 1820. Placed into law as 7 Stat. 203.
The Treaty of Saginaw, also known as the Treaty with the Chippewa, was made between Gen. Lewis Cass and Chief John Okemos, Chief Wasso and other Native American tribes of the Great Lakes region (principally the Ojibwe, but also the Ottawa and Potawatomi) on this day in 1819. Over 6 million acres, a third of the lower peninsula of Michigan was opened for legal white settlement by the treaty.
Sources :
Treaty of Saginaw Wikipedia entry
1819 Saginaw Cession and Treaty. A chapter from the Geography of Michigan and the Great Lakes Region, GEO333, Michigan State University.
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College: Ojibwe History ACT 31 Website
Saginaw Treaty of 1819 Map courtesy of the Bay Journal.
Indian Reservations and Treaty Cessions, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University.
- 1. Greenville Treaty,1795
- 2. Detroit Treaty, 1807
- 3. Foot of the Rapids Treaty, 1817
- 4. Saginaw Treaty, 1819
- 5. Sault St. Marie, 1820
- 6. Chicago Treaty, 1821
- 7. Carey Mission, 1828
- 8. Chicago Treaty, 1833
- 9. Washington Treaty, 1836
- 10. Cedar Point Treaty, 1836
- 11. La Pointe Treaty, 1842
Courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan Universty.
On September 24, 1830, Stephen G. Simmons, after having been tried by a jury of his peers and found guilty of killing his wife, Levana Simmons, in a drunken fury, was executed on the gallows in Detroit. His was the last state execution before Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1846.
Simmons’ demeanor at the execution turned the tide of public opinion against execution. Before being hanged, he delivered a moving address and admitted his fault, and then sang a hymn asking for God’s forgiveness.
When Governor Alpheus Felch signed the statute which abolished capital punishment for first degree murder on May 18, 1846, the state of Michigan became the first government in the English speaking world to do so.
The new law went into effect on March 1, 1847 and stipulated that:
“All murder that shall be perpetrated by means of poison or lying in wait, or any other kind of willful [sic], deliberate and premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate any arson, rape, robbery, or burglary, shall be deemed murder of the first degree, and shall be punished by solitary confinement at hard labor in the State Prison for Life; and all other kinds of murder shall be deemed murder of the second degree, and shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for life, or any term of years, at the discretion of the court trying the same.”
For more information, see David G. Chardavoyne, A Hanging in Detroit : Stephen Gifford Simmons and the Last Execution Under Michigan Law, 2003.
Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
Lucius Lyon (February 26, 1800 – September 24, 1851) was a U.S. statesman from the state of Michigan. He was born in Shelburne, Vermont, where he received a common school education and studied engineering and surveying. He moved to Bronson (now Kalamazoo), Michigan, in 1821 where he became a land surveyor, eventually becoming the Deputy Surveyor General of the Michigan Territory.
In 1829, he was commissioned to rebuild the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse at the entrance to the St. Clair River from Lake Huron.
In the 1830s, he surveyed a portion of what would become the boundary between Illinois and Wisconsin. Lucius Lyon placed the initial point of the Fourth Principal Meridian on December 10, 1831. He also participated in the survey parties which established the baseline and meridian used to define townships in Wisconsin. His field notebooks recorded considerable detail about the land he surveyed, providing a rich source of information for later researchers.
1831 Survey of Grand Rapids by Lucius Lyon
US Government – 1831
Section 25 of the of the April 1831 government survey map of Township 7 North, Range 12 West by Deputy Surveyor Lucius Lyon. On the west side of the Grand River a mission (Baptist) at the south end of the rapids and chapel (Roman Catholic) are depicted, and on the right a house indicating the Campeaus
Source: Surveying the Land, Grand Rapids Historical Commission, December 1, 2006.
From May 11 to June 24, 1835, he was a member of the convention that drafted the first Michigan Constitution, which voters adopted in October, 1835. In November 1835, Lyon was elected as U.S. Senator. However Michigan’s delegation to Congress was seated as “spectators”, pending Michigan’s admission as a state. Upon Michigan’s admission as a state on January 26, 1837, Lyon served as a full U.S. Senator until 1839.
On March 28, 1836, Lyon was a witness to the Treaty of Washington of 1836, in which the Ottawa and Chippewa nations of Indians ceded much of the land in the northern portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. He was also witness to a separate treaty on May 9, 1836 with the Chippewa in which additional land was ceded.
He did not run for reelection in 1839 and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan, 1837–1839, and was appointed Indian commissioner at La Pointe, Wisconsin in 1839. He was elected as a Democrat from the newly formed 2nd district in Michigan to the 28th Congress, serving one term from March 4, 1843 to March 3, 1845. He was the first person to represent Michigan in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. In both houses of Congress he served on the Committee on Public Lands.
He did not run for reelection and was appointed by President James K. Polk in 1845 as surveyor general for Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. He moved the office for this post from Cincinnati, Ohio to Detroit, Michigan and served in this capacity until 1850.
Lyon was also a major financial backer of Hiram Moore, an inventor and a founder of the village of Climax, Michigan. Moore reportedly invented a working farm machine in the 1830s and 1840s that “combined” the functions of a threshing machine and a reaper, decades before combines were commonly available. Moore’s designs were allegedly copied by Cyrus McCormick and despite many years of legal wrangling, Moore was unsuccessful in pursuing his patent claims.
He also owned a large tract of land in Grand Rapids, Michigan and engaged in a feud over platting the area with the other major land owner, Louis Campau. Lyon wanted to call it the village of Kent rather than Grand Rapids. Lyon is also remembered in Grand Rapids for attempting to commercialize salt deposits in the city by boring a hole and extracting salt from the brine water below.
In politics he was Democrat, in religion a Swedenborgian. He was also a temperance advocate associated with the Washingtonian movement.
Lucius Lyon died in Detroit and was interred in Elmwood Cemetery.
South Lyon, Michigan, Lyon Township, Oakland County, Michigan, Lyon Township, Roscommon County, Michigan, Lyon Lake, Fredonia, Michigan and Lyons Township, Michigan are all named after Lucius Lyon. Notably, in 1836, Lucius Lyon purchased much of the property in a small village in Ionia County, Michigan and renamed it Lyons, Michigan. He platted the village, established the first post office and installed his brother, Truman, as the first postmaster, although he never lived in the village.
Lucius Lyon was also honored by having the first Grand Rapids Community Legends Project statue forged in his honor. It is now located in Lyon Square.
Sources :
Dodge, Elise F. “Pioneers of the Statehood Era: Lucius Lyon.” Michigan History 71 (November/December 1987)
Lucius Lyon : an eminently useful citizen / by Kit Lane. Douglas, Mich. : Pavilion Press, [1991] Available through interlibrary loan via MelCat.
Colorado’s Miracle at Michigan
On September 24, 1994, Kordell Stewart chucks a Hail Mary, which is deflected and caught by Buffaloes WR Michael Westbrook to beat the Wolverines.