The Saginaw Trail: From Native American Path to Woodward Avenue

by Leslie K. Pielack

Leslie Pielack tells the story of those whose lives intertwined with the Saginaw Trail, the ancient path that transformed early Michigan.

The Saginaw Trail led from the frontier town of Detroit into the wilderness, weaving through towering trees and swamps to distant Native American villages. Presenting a forbidding landscape that was also a settlers' paradise, the road promised great riches in natural resources like lumber and agriculture, and a future of wheeled vehicles that would make Michigan the center of a global industry.

160 pages, Paperback

Published July 30, 2018

About the author

Leslie K. Pielack is museum director at the Birmingham Museum in Birmingham, Michigan, and has been active in the museum field for many years. She also provides consultation services for historic organizations and archival collections and is past adjunct professor at University of Detroit–Mercy’s School of Architecture. Leslie is a dual career professional with a part-time private practice in counseling and work in public history and preservation. She finds that psychology and historic preservation are very compatible in approaching museum work and is especially intrigued with the personal stories behind historic events and the people who lived them. Her research, writing and presentations draw from these interests in trying to re-create a sense of common ground and connection with people in the past.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Fascinating histories of the “Saginaw Trail,” or, as I grew up calling it, Woodward and Dixie Highway.

This book is why I’m such a big believer in place-based scholarship and thinking. To someone who has lived their whole lives in California, this book would probably be dry as a bone. To me, it’s a tale of ancestry and reflection.

Author Leslie Pielack steers us through the history of the trail from its ancient beginnings. As the white colonists moved in (and, with them, methods for recording history), human drama unfolded along the trail daily. The profound losses of the Native American were the economic gains of the white man. Far too soon, Pielack chauffeurs us to the modern crumbling concrete byways of postindustrial Michigan. Alas, the Saginaw Trail theme is intriguing but limiting. The most fascinating travelers were pushed to the Isabella Reservation (or to the grave) long ago.

Decent attempt to include perspectives of marginalized people of all kinds. The human drama of the Saginaw Trail was not picky.

[Andrew Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! If you know the area of Detroit, Michigan, know it anew through the lens of this book. Great info. Great research. Great use of photos and maps.

[Dave Decker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well sourced, very well written history of an important road and trail during the settlement and development of the Southeastern Michigan area. Leslie has done an outstanding job at telling the stories of the people and places along this road, with a lot of detail and in an easy to read way. The book has a lot of information for anyone researching or interested in the history of the Wayne/Oakland/Genessee and Saginaw County areas, including Native American impacts and European points of view. Highly recommended.

[Paul Lunger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leslie K Pielack's "The Saginaw Trail: From Native American Path to Woodward Avenue" tells the story of how this trail in southeastern & mid-Michigan would open up the settlement of parts of this region as well as the developments in this path that would eventually become a link between Detroit & Flint. This easy-to-read book examines the history from the days of the ice age through the native peoples into the present in a way that will definitely add knowledge to anyone who has an interest in this region as well as its overall history.

[Juli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the well-written history that you get when you combine a love of place with a deep understanding of the psychology of the humans who inhabited that place. If history textbooks were written this way, our children would have a much greater interest in the subject. Well done!