Discovering YOU Magazine March 2019 Issue | Page 33

miles southwest of the metropolis. The first settlers to this area were French explorers who explored the area in the late 1800’s. They arrived in 1860, but Allen Park wasn’t incorporated as a village until 1927. It was named after “Lewis Allen,” pioneer lumberman and land owner who owned a large area of what would become the villages of Allen Park and Melvindale.

As years went on and more people began to come to Allen Park; the city became more useful as a transit suburb to either Detroit or the nearby Ford Manufacturing plants, and the citizens began demanding to break away from the township and to become a full city. It took three tries as the citizens applied in 1950, 1952, and 1957, but they finally got approved for city status, becoming the second to the last Township Territory to become a city, before Southgate, and “Ecorse Township” were no more.

The last city to talk about is” Lincoln Park” where I lived for five years. If you have ever driven past the “Lincoln Park High School,” the entire land plus some surrounding land was once owned by my great grandfather “Joseph Bourassa” back in the mid 1800’s, which is on my mother’s side of the family before the land was sold to make room for the high school. In 1921 Lincoln Park became a village, and by 1925 it became a city. What is now Lincoln Park was once the “Potawatomi Indian Nation”, blessed with streams and rivers, lakes of crystal pure water, virgin forests, abundant wildlife like; deer, bear, fox and other fur bearers that were once hunted there? There is so much more Downriver history that could fill the entirety of a magazine which is worth investigating with a trip to your local city museum. I hope you enjoyed the journey through Ecorse Township!

VACATION AND TRAVEL

Southfield Road called “State Street” in Lincoln Park, Michigan in 1924