Cadillac’s Detroit

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 13

Cadillac’s Detroit

[Specially written for “The Press’' By

KENNETH ANTHONY)

TN Europe a fair number of i x cities can trace their his-j tory back for a continuous period of a 1000 years and more; a very few, such as Rome and London, for much longer still. But in the United States it is still unusual for a city to reach its 250th anniversary —so unusual, in fact, that when Detroit celebrated this event in 1951 a special stamp was issued in the design illustrated. Detroit was founded by a Frenchman, Antoine Cadillac, whose memory was honoured by the stamp. It is an interesting reflection of modern ' American's sense of history that the name of this pioneer is perpetuated today by one iof the famous makes of cars [that are now manufactured in [the city he established. Cadillac was a soldier, born in Gascony in 1657. who beicame a notable explorer and (colonial administrator in the days when France controlled [a large empire in North i America. He founded Detroit in 1701 with a band of 50 soldiers and 50 settlers. In its early years it was no more than a military outpost surrounded by a stockade and intended to protect the fur trade.

Today it has become the fifth city in the United States, with a population of 1,700,000 and the main centre of the motor car industry. Detroit passed out of French hands in 1760; but not many people realise that this thriving industrial city continues to show its French origin by its very name. The original settlement was in fact named Ville d’Etroit from its position on a river bank —“etroit” being French