Detroit Attractions

In 1701 Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac established a fort on the site of the present-day city. In 1760 this passed into British hands, and in 1796, after the American victory in the battle of Fallen Timber, was incorporated in the United States. After being incorporated as a town in 1802 and suffering great devastation in a fire in 1805, Detroit was from 1807 to 1847 capital of the state of Michigan. Its economic rise began in earnest with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and the development of steamship traffic and was accompanied by a rapid increase in population. The automobile industry, founded by Henry Ford around the turn of the 19th c., soon took the city's population above the million mark (and by 1930 to 1.5 million); and in spite of its considerable chemical, electrical and electronics industries, its shipyards and its oil refineries, there can be few cities more heavily dependent on automobile production than Detroit. In the late 1960s Detroit hit the headlines as a result of the serious racial disturbances among its large colored population.