There was a time in the 20th century when Henry Ford’s Rouge car factory literally started at one end from scratch with iron ore, limestone and coke and at the other end rolled out finished automobiles. Sort of a nativity scene, with newborn cars delivered there on the Lower Rouge.
That piece of history is well-known. What most people don’t know is that a few miles upstream from the Rouge plant, cars have been abandoned, lying submerged in the river, sitting askew on the banks or just resting on the floodplain.
The Rouge is a birthplace for cars, but it is also a car graveyard.
I discovered this feature of the Rouge three years ago when I was still a reporter with the Detroit Free Press. Together with my old friend and colleague Pat Beck, a Free Press photographer, I paddled a canoe up the Rouge River, starting at Zug Island where U.S. Steel makes iron that eventually goes for cars and many other products. We decided to go upstream because that’s how early European explorers would have seen it, arriving from Lake Erie.We paddled past the Rouge plant, where the steel mill now belongs to a Russian company. And for five days we kept at it, forcing our way over, around or through 72 logjams, four dams and spotting along the way 16 junk cars. I dictated their locations into my audio recorder.
My story and Pat’s photos, including amazing shots of junk cars in or along the Rouge — ran in the Detroit Free Press Oct. 19-20, 2005. The following spring, I got a call from Sally Petrella, public involvement coordinator at Friends of the Rouge. Would I be so kind as to show her where those cars are? A Livonia company, Aristeo Construction, had offered workers and heavy equipment to remove them.
By now, it’s gotten to be a yearly thing. Last week, for the third time, I got out the transcript of the audio log I made as Pat and I paddled up the Rouge June 6-10, 2005. I knew where the volunteer crews had already pulled 10 1/2 cars out in 2006 and 2007, so I didn’t bother looking at my comments for those areas. n 2006, six and a half cars were yanked from River Rouge Park. Last year, three cars were pulled out in the half-mile of river north of Fenkell Street. But according to my log, we spotted another seven junk cars in the last half mile, roughly, before Six Mile. Some were near the river, above the banks, while others were right in the river.
In June 2006, during Rouge Rescue, the Aristeo workes, led by Rick Lewandowski, slowly brought front-end loaders through the woods to the river in Detroit. The statistic six and a half comes from the fact that they got enough parts at one spot to make half a vehicle. Invariably, whoever dumped the cars scraped vehicle identification numbers off, so it’s impossible to track down ownes. In 2007, I showed Rick and Sally four cars just north of Fenkell. Aristeo got three of them. The fourth is still there, buried in the bank under the Fenkell Street bridge.
On our hike last April 29, with Sally and Cyndi Ross of Friends of the Rouge, we found the seven cars Pat and I spotted from the canoe, plus three more.
It was an amazing sight from the canoe. Your vision takes in the river and its banks nd the woods that rise up from the banks. What you don’t see are the lanes and streets that end close to the river. It’s those neighborhoods and their streets that populate the Rouge car cemetery.
But there is some good news. All of these cars are rusty and look like they’ve been there for years. It doesn’t look to me like more cars have been added to this sad pre-owned car inventory.
Is word getting out that this is a bad practice, this junking of old cars in the river?
The bad news, though, is that in the neighborhood to the east of this area, I saw many more burned-out houses than were there in previous years. No people, no junk cars? Maybe.
On Saturday, June 7, Aristeo will be back with front-end loaders, ready to yank more car carcasses out of the drink. I’ll be there again to watch and report.
Removing trash that may have come from that factory downstream is a wonderful step towards making this river more like the pristine gem it was when white explorers found it centuries ago.
Friends of the Rouge are always looking for more people to help with their annual Rouge Rescue. For more information, see their website at http://www.therouge.org/Programs/PI/River%20Restoration/Rouge%20Rescue2/RougeRescue2008/Rouge_Rescue_2008.html
Contact me at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
Wayne State University Press is publishing a book by Pat Beck and me about our Rouge canoe trip. There will be dozens of Pat’s photos with a discussion of Rouge issues and trip narrative written by me. It’s called “Up the Rouge! Paddling Detroit’s Hidden River.” It’s to be for sale in early 2009.
