Detroit, 4 March 2018

Zug Island

Today I had an appointment in River Rouge. Dolores Swekel, Director of River Rouge Historical Museum, was awaiting me. I was very pleased to meet this lovely lady who is very much connected to the River Rouge’s society and its history. James Holliday, Trustee of the museum, was there too. He said: »Here everybody knows everybody. No matter what restaurant you go into, people will say hello and talk to you. Everybody knows everybody. I used to know all the people on my street by names and so on.« Together they run the museum which was used to be a funeral house some day. The museum collects all kind of ancient items from River Rouge and presents these objects thematically sorted in different rooms.

Thanks to Dolores, I had access to some old, big and heavy plat books of River Rouge. Every single page was a hand-made piece of art with drawings of maps with parcels and beautiful handwritings in it. On the following picture on the top of the map on the cover of the book, you see Zug Island.

We had some chat about River Rouge which has been an industrial community for a long time already. At a certain point, Dolores and James were talking about the pollution that was and still is generated on Zug Island.

When I left River Rouge and went back to the city of Detroit cycling on my bike, I could scent a strange sweet-sourish smell that probably was coming from Zug Island.

In my backpack I had a small but heavy present which James gave me as a souvenir.