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Detroit 1820 BY EPHRAIM S. WILLIAMS
At Farmer and Gratiot stood the old Pontiac depot, removed in 1842 from the site of the first railway station in the city, at Dequindre and Jefferson where it was established in 1838. About 1850 the ears coming down Gratiot avenue stopped upon the opera house site, on the Campus Martius, which was finally abandoned for the Brush street depot. The Central depot, for the ten years 1838-48, was on the site of the city hall, the trains moving in and out on Michigan avenue.
Fort street, historically, is one oŁ the most interesting of Detroit thoroughfares, as its very name suggests. Near its western terminus, on the river bank, may be visited a well preserved, though small, enclosure or fortification of the mound-builders. Upon and near the ground now covered by Fort Wayne
were the copious natural fountains or springs that gave the name to Springwells; and, in the vicinity, several interesting burial mounds could be seen forty or fifty years ago. Hereabout were pitched the wigwams of the Pottawa-tomie village, whose site was granted by the tribe to Robert Navarre, "son of the scrivener, " one of the most notable of the early French residents. The Huron village was on the Jones farm, now a long way within the city limits. Not far from Twenty fourth street ran Knagg's creek, at the mouth of which, on the Detroit, stood his old red windmill, erected in or before 1795, and remaining until this century was well advanced. The late Mrs. Hamlin made it the scene of one of her entertaining "Legends of Le Detroit. "
Detroit Michigan
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