History: The River Road
Part 2: A Military Trail
The following is a written history of Wayne County’s first road, The River Road,
now know as Jefferson Avenue through most of Wayne County. The history starts from
its earliest beginnings as a simple path in the late 1600’s through its eventual
paving in the early 1900’s.
Part I - An Indian Trail
Nearly all great roads in the world follow what was at one time either a trail along
which animals went to a drinking or feeding place, or a trail which man made to
go to the chase or to war.
They were built
along these old trails because quite naturally they followed the most logical line
to a given objective and avoided as much as possible the greater natural obstacles.
For this reason, all roads commemorate the most simple and ancient things.
There is no road in history which has existed for any great length of time, which
has not a story to tell at every turn. So it is with the River Road. This is the
oldest road in Wayne County and in order to tell the story, we must turn back to
the days when the first settlement was established in Detroit.
Indian Trails
When Cadillac landed in 1691, at what is now Detroit, roads were unknown. The
traffic and travel were exclusively by water as most of the people lived along the
larger navigable waters. Communication to the interior was chiefly along trails
used by the Indians. This section was on the warpath of the Iroquois who made frequent
excursions to the west. There were two principal trails used by the Indians in going
to Malden to receive their annual presents from the British. The St. Joseph Trail
led up the St. Joseph River from Lake Michigan, then overland to the Huron River
and along the latter to Lake Erie. The Saginaw Trail skirted the southern end of
Saginaw Bay and extended thence to the Rouge River and along this stream to the
Detroit River.
The First Road Problem
For more than 100 years after this first settlement, the settlers still managed
to get along without roads, but the need grew more and more apparent as the years
went by. What the people needed was ready communication with the frontier in Ohio.
This presented the first road problem in Wayne County.
In 1799, Patrick McNeff, a surveyor, wrote Solomon Sibley in part as follows:
"The situation of the country in respect to public roads should be taken into consideration.
The present seat of justice is in Detroit, the settlements extending thence northerly
to the upper end of the River St. Clair nearly sixty miles, and also from Detroit
southwesterly to the foot of the rapids of the Miami [Maumee] River, nearly sixty
miles. To those extreme parts of the settlements there are but two periods in the
year that persons from the seat of justice can have access to them without the help
of watercraft, namely: In the month of September by land, and in the winter when
the waters are sufficiently frozen that ice will bear them; otherwise, no access
to these places but by water."
Road Through Black Swamp
The first effort at road building was sort of a bridge path which ran along
the west bank of the Detroit River and through the swamps in the vicinity of Toledo
to Cleveland. This followed an Indian trail known as the French-Indian Trail through
the Black Swamp to Detroit. The Black Swamp consisted of a slightly elevated basin
of impervious clay, upon which rested a thick stratum of fertile black loam. The
surface was so level that water could not escape except by evaporation. As there
was not much evaporation it was always wet and travelers had to virtually swim through
the swamp. But in spite of all of this, roads came into existence and this bridle
path became the modern thoroughfare, which today is called the River Road.
Treaty of Brownstown
In the Treaty of Brownstown, made November 25, 1808, the Indians granted to
the United States a tract of land two miles wide, and which extended westward and
northward from the Connecticut Western Reserve to the foot of the Rapids of the
Miamis of the Lakes, with the understanding that a road should be built along it.
In 1811, the President authorized a party to survey and mark this road and six thousand
dollars were set aside to cover the expense. But the war of 1812 prevented the carrying
out of the provisions of this treaty. Another cause for delay undoubtedly was the
great expense necessary to construct the road across the Black Swamp.
Part 2: A Military Trail
