Historical museum. We are here at the frontiers to factories exhibit. This shows us the history of detroit, from basically before the city was settled, the actual city of detroit, up through the rise of the various industries that take place in this city. About a span of 200 years. The city of detroit itself was founded by the french. In 1701. Detroit is a french name. It means the strait. That represents the strait of water, the Detroit River, that now separates the United States from canada. At that time it was all one region of land, inhabited by the various native american peoples. This is a representation of what it may have looked like around 1701, when the french settled this area. That there is a long, long history that took place before then. Human habitation began in this area almost as far as 2000 years ago, with the cultures we sometimes refer to as moundbuilders, who came out of the Mississippi River area. They came to this region and left us these large burial mounds. At one point there was at least six of them in the city. Grounds one remains, on of historic fort wayne at the Detroit River. So several tribes living here, would have been the chippewa, the pottawatomie, the ottawa, the huron as well. These people lived a very prosperous life for such a long time before european habitation. They were cultivating crops, hunting, trading, making tools and pieces of artwork. Some of those are displayed over here. So, the pipe at the top of the case was given to one of the settlers of detroit by tecumseh, a famous native american figurehead in this region. And you can also see some tools, created by the peoples here, made out of stones, metals, things they would have gotten from the land, essentially. Has such aegion strong connection with the Detroit River, these copper fishing hooks i find very interesting. We still see people along the River Fishing for recreation, to get food, and this connects us way back to the original people who settled here. Detroit was first settled by who gotcadillac, permission from the french king to establish a trading outpost on the strategic section of the Detroit River where detroit is now. He came from the northern route out of montreal with canoes, with about 100 men. When they arrived, they immediately got to work at building a settlement. This little settlement represent a ribbon farm. A ribbon farm is an agricultural method established by the french when they settled here. Imagine you have the Detroit River, flowing like this, and detroit on top of that. Ribbon farms stretched on either and in long, thin sections, and this allowed each family, each farmer to have a little bit of land near the river, near the water, and this would be used for watering your plants, but also critically important for transport as well. So detroits location itself was a very attractive spot for the french, because of the Detroit River. Its a very narrow river that leads from lake erie to lake huron, and this is important not only because of commerce, getting goods from the upper regions of michigan and the rest of the great lakes, but also as a strategic position. At this point, detroit was on both sides of the river, on both the american side now and the canadian side. Because of this, they controlled the entire span leading to the rest of the great lakes, so important both from strategic aspects and controlling trade. Following the french and indian war, new france became british, all ceded to the british, in 1763. Right now, you are looking at a really great model of detroit, as it would have maybe looked in 1792. This model represents the town, and the new forte which was built by the british. This was after they had torn down the original fort, fort ain,ho train pontchartr which the french had built. You might notice it is strange that the fort is behind the settlement, which is down by the river and the fort is up on a bluff. This would actually come back to bite the fort. When the americans took over, they noticed, hweey, hey, our cannons cannot fire on the river, and what good is a fort that can fire on the river . So that was eventually torn down, and replaced with another fort. Even though at this point detroit was a british city, a majority of residents were still french. A couple hundred within the city limits, but a lot more on the ribbon farms outside the city i mentioned earlier. In 1805, detroit actually burned down to the ground almost completely. All but a couple buildings had been complete the destroyed. But because it happened mid day, on a sunday, miraculously no one was killed. Despite the obvious tragedy of the whole city burning down, this provided a fresh start, you might say, for a whole new city plan, the bones of which are actually still represented in the city today. The new territorial judge a gustus woodward, as he was on his way to detroit, that is when the city burned down. When he arrived it was a smoldering ashheap, essentially. But he was a big fan of pierre lenfant, the city designer for washington, d. C. , and he got to work planning a new city grid. Leah provided for provided for wide boulevards, spaces where people could congregate, things that did not naturally occur when the city had grown over time. Some of the elements he stole from lenfant, the diagonal lines, the circular plazas. Grand circus park and campus martius are still in the city today, even though the plan saw a few changes. I mentioned the importance of the Detroit River not only as a highway for trade, but also for travel. Cityollowing the fire, the continue to rebuild. More people came to the city, and because of that location on the Detroit River, the link between the upper and lower great lakes, we see a lot of commerce continuing to thrive. We see ships coming back from the Upper Peninsula of michigan, lumber,n ore, with things that would transform the city of detroit into a major manufacturing hub, one of the biggest manufacturing cities in the United States. By the mid1800s, detroit is already an industrial powerhouse with the Detroit River bringing resources from the Upper Peninsula and other places on the great lakes region, with the railroad being built more and more miles all the time. Stockpile ofing a resources that would be transformed into other things in the city itself. Things like various types of metal. Things like the shipbuilding industry. Things like ores from the Upper Peninsula, iron and copper ore, this would get transformed into things that would transform the country, turning into ships, railcars, and eventually later on l mobiles. It is around automobiles. It is around this time that detroit really gained its reputation as a manufacturing powerhouse. Our cities tour staff recently traveled to detroit, michigan, to learn about its rich history. To watch more video from detroit, and other stops on our tour, visit www. Cspan. Org citiestour. Youre watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. Four black privates serving in the u. S. Women army corps went on strike to protest discrimination. Next on American History tv, Sandra Bolzenius talks about the womens decision, their court martial, and public and press reactions. Shes the author of glory in their spirit how four black women took on the army during world war ii. We recorded the interview at the annual black history luncheon hosted by