Trenton, Michigan, United States

🇺🇸 Trenton is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A Shawnee village was built in the area by war chief Blue Jacket after the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. The area later became the site of the Battle of Monguagon between Americans and a British-Indian coalition during the War of 1812. The battle is commemorated with a Michigan State Historical Site marker in present-day Elizabeth Park, which was the first county park in Michigan when it was established in 1919. Portions of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge are within the southern portion of Trenton.

The area was once part of the now-defunct Monguagon Township. Trenton was incorporated as a village in 1855 and again as a city in 1957. The city is part of the Downriver collection of communities south of Detroit on the west bank of the Detroit River. Trenton is known for its waterfront and growing boating community. Major industries include Stellantis-Chrysler's Trenton Engine Plant, Solutia, and the DTE Energy Trenton Channel Power Plant. Beaumont Hospital – Trenton is located within city limits and has 203 beds. The former McLouth Steel plant is also located in the city. The city operates the 21,000-square-foot (2,000 m²) Trenton Veterans Memorial Library and a historical museum.

History The founder of Trenton is considered to be Abram Caleb Truax, a member of the territorial militia in attendance when General William Hull surrendered Detroit to the British General Isaac Brock early in the War of 1812. After the war, in 1816, Truax acquired a large tract of land in the Michigan Territory along the Detroit River from the U.S. government and constructed a sawmill, church and store in what is today downtown Trenton. When Territorial Governor Lewis Cass organized Monguagon Township in 1827, Truax became the first township supervisor. He laid out the village of Truaxton in 1834. A post office had been established there named "Monguago" in 1828 with Truax as the first postmaster. The post office name was changed to "Truago" in 1837, and to "Trenton" in 1847, after a type of limestone mined from a local quarry. The village was platted and recorded under the name Trenton in 1850 by Abram Truax's son and daughter George Brigham Truax and Sophia Slocum, the wife of industrialist Giles Slocum. The Slocum family estate was given to the county, becoming what is known as Elizabeth Park, named after Elizabeth Slocum.

In 1834 an industrialist, Giles Bryan Slocum, constructed a dock, making Trenton a major hub of steamboat traffic. In 1846, Captain Arthur Edwards founded the Detroit & Cleveland Steamboat Company in Trenton. Through the late 1880s Trenton, like several Downriver communities, was known for its extensive shipyards. Sibley, Michigan would not be incorporated into Trenton until 1929.

A Detroit businessman and later Michigan's first U.S. attorney, Solomon Sibley, started a limestone quarry near Trenton, near what is today Fort Street and Sibley Road. Materials from the quarry were used to construct structures in Detroit, most notably Fort Detroit along the Detroit River. The quarry was later sold to Austin Church, who used limestone to make baking soda, which he sold under his family's nameplate, Arm & Hammer. In 1900 the quarry was the site of the Sibley Quarry explosion.

Through the late 1880s and even early 1900s, Trenton prospered because it was roughly a day's journey between Detroit and Monroe, Michigan, which meant people traveling between the two cities would have to stop overnight in Trenton. Painted centre lines, an innovation vital to the traffic control of modern road transport, were first implemented in 1911 by legendary road developer Edward N. Hines on River Road (modern West Jefferon Avenue).

Trenton annexed the village of Sibley (along the modern Riverview border) in 1929, extending the city's northern boundary to modern-day Sibley Road. Trenton was incorporated as a city in 1957. In 1920 a small light railroad ran along West Jefferson to Wyandotte. The rail services ended in 1934. The tracks were removed in 1942 for the war effort.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.51 square miles (19.45 km²), of which 7.28 square miles (18.86 km²) is land and 0.23 square miles (0.60 km²) is water. The city is located between Detroit and Monroe, Michigan, in the south-eastern part of the state. The city is located on the western bank of the Detroit River and is bounded by Grosse Ile to the east, Riverview to the north, Brownstown Township to the west and south and Woodhaven to the west.

Transport • M-85: Known locally as Fort Street, it runs north–south through the centre of Trenton and connects with Interstate 75 about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Trenton. • West Jefferson Avenue runs north–south along the eastern portion of Trenton near the Detroit River. • Wayne County Bridge connects the city of Trenton to Grosse Ile Township across the Trenton Channel of the Detroit River.

Economy Trenton has an unemployment rate of 6.5%, higher than the US average of 3.7%. The sales tax rate is 6.0%, below the US average of 6.2%. The income tax rate is 4.3%, below the US average is 4.6%. The recent job growth rates in Trenton is at 0.7%, below the US average of 1.6%. The future job growth rates are estimated to be 35%, above the US average of 33.5%. Per capita income in Flat Rock is at an average rate of $31,870, above the average of $31,177. The average household income is $59,943, above the US average of $57,652. The family median income is $78,100 above the US average of $70,850.

Trenton is home to many large industrial facilities, including Solutia, Chrysler Trenton Engine Plant, the Trenton Channel Power Plant, Kerkstra Precast, and the former Vulcan Mold and McLouth Steel properties.

Trenton Channel Power Plant The Trenton Channel Power Plant, a coal-burning power station in Trenton, opened on the shoreline of Detroit River in 1924, on the south side of Slocum Island. It is owned by Detroit Edison, a subsidiary of DTE Energy. It had 6 turbine generators with 13 coal-fired boilers when first commissioned. Each unit produced a rated 50 megawatts of electricity. Five short smoke stacks exhausted gases from the boilers. These were the first Detroit Edison units to use pulverized coal rather than the older style stoker-fired beds of coal. They were also the first power plants in the US to use electrostatic precipitators to capture fly ash from the stacks. Electrostatic precipitators, however, were in use in other industries at the time. In 1950, a second plant started up at the same site and adjoined the first plant. It had two turbine generators, #7 and #8, with a rating of 120 megawatts each. Two short smoke stacks released gases from the four boilers. Finally in 1968, Unit #9 was placed in service. It is a 550-megawatt turbine generator fed by a single boiler. It adjoins the high side plant and is located on the south side. One 563-foot-tall smoke stack is used for this unit. Soon afterwards, another stack, identical to the #9 stack, was erected to replace the two short stacks on the high side plant. Both tall stacks remain in service as of 2012.

The characteristic striped smokestacks were constructed with an innovative “smokestack within a smokestack” design to reduce the level of pollutants released. The inner smokestacks were lined with asbestos to achieve this, which ended up later being removed at great cost. The plant strives to keep its area pollutant-free. In 2002, the facility was designated a corporate wildlife habitat by the Wildlife Habitat Council. Because of their efforts, the Trenton Channel Power Plant and Sibley Quarry were co-awarded the Wildlife Habitat Council's Corporate Habitat of the Year award in 2004.

By the mid-1970s, the low side plant was decommissioned and the boiler house was eventually demolished. In the 2010s, all generators except #9 were closed. The power plant is scheduled to close by 2023, because DTE Energy is planning to change to natural gas and renewable energy power plants.

McLouth Steel Trenton Plant In 1948, McLouth Steel purchased riverfront land along Jefferson Avenue to begin building its second complex. Between the land purchase and the buildout, the project cost more than $100 million and by 1949, the first ingots were poured at the site. By 1954, the Trenton Plant was dedicated and McLouth became able to produce iron as an integrated steel mill.

McLouth, the ninth largest steelmaker in the United States, was known both by the industry and its own slogan as a pioneer. It was the first in the United States to use the basic oxygen process, the first to have online computer control of steelmaking processes, the first to use a continuous caster in the United States, the first to cast 100% of its steel by continuous caster, and the first to use inductive slab heating.

Due to a high dependence on automotive customers, outdated and incorrectly sized equipment, union-management struggles, and economic downturns, McLouth underwent multiple bankruptcies and reorganizations in the 1980s and 1990s. McLouth ultimately shuttered for good in 1996, and with it, the Trenton Plant.

The plant was sold later that year to the Detroit Steel Company. Through the early 2000s, Detroit Steel primarily brought in outside steel, pickled it, and sold it. The plant's many failed startup attempts led to Wayne County's 2017 foreclosure on the site, after owners failed to pay $3.7 million in back taxes. MSC Land Co. purchased the land, entering into an agreement to demolish all buildings and perform some remediation. The proposed use for the land is an intermodal operation utilizing its port, rail lines, and proximity to freeways. The site was put on EPA's Superfund National Priorities List in May 2019.

Demolition and cleanup is currently being led by Crown Enterprises and overseen by the EPA and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). All buildings are scheduled to be demolished by December 2020.

Beaumont Hospital Seaway Hospital, now called Beaumont Hospital, opened up on Fort Street in 1961 as a community hospital in Trenton. Specialties there include diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and GI surgery, geriatrics, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology and urology.

Trenton Engine Plant The Trenton Engine Plant is a Chrysler factory in Trenton, Michigan. The north factory opened in 1952 and underwent major expansion in 1969. Trenton Engine was the site chosen for production of the 2.2 L four-cylinder engine which debuted in 1980 in the K-cars. In 1985, the north factory underwent another expansion, and later in 2005, Daimler Chrysler reportedly invested $297 million in order to expand the Trenton Engine plant to prepare to build a new 4.0 L version of the SOHC V6 and to also revitalize the 3.8 line. The north factory stopped manufacturing engines in May 2011, and Chrysler announced that it would invest $114 million to repurpose one-fifth or nearly 400,000 square feet of the plant for the production of core components for the Pentastar V-6 engine. In November 2012, the company announced that it would invest an additional $40 million to add a flexible production line that can run both the Pentastar engine and the Tigershark (I-4) engine.

The south factory opened in 2010. Its current product is the 3.6L Pentastar V6 engine, and the 2.0L FCA Global Medium Engine L4 engine.

Education Trenton has four public schools with more than 3,000 students total. • Anderson Elementary School • Hedke Elementary school • Arthurs Middle School (formerly known as Monguagon Middle School) • Trenton High School

A portion of Trenton, north of King Road, is in the Riverview Community School District.

St. Joseph Catholic School in Trenton opened in February 1948, with the school renovated in 1999.

Culture • Trenton features an active community revolving around sports. Its downtown area, along West Jefferson Avenue, features an annual craft fair the last weekend of June, called the Trenton Summer Festival. • The recently remodeled Trenton Village Theatre is located in the downtown area Trenton Village Theatre | DYPAC. The art deco theater was designed by Charles N. Agree, who also created the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, among many others. • Trenton operates the Bridge Cultural Center at 2427 West Road, a former farmhouse that now houses an array of yearly activities, including an annual Christmas fair and arts and crafts events. • Trenton is home to the Wyandot Nation of Anderdon, one of four Wyandot communities in North America.

Festivals Trenton has several festivals throughout the year: • Roar on the River • Taste of Trenton • Country Christmas • Somewhere in Time • Trenton Summer Festival • Scarecrow Festival • Country on the River

Sport Trenton was the city of the Michigan Stars in the All-American Hockey League. They played their games at the Kennedy Ice Arena. The team folded during 1987-88 AAHL season after 14 games.

Parks and recreation The city recently spent $8.4 million to renovate the Kennedy Recreation Center, a 150,000-square-foot (14,000 m²) complex along West Road that includes ice rinks, meeting rooms, and sports services, a sporting goods shop. The Teifer rink was originally an outdoor rink, which opened during Christmas week in 1961. The facility is home to the Trenton, Riverview, Grosse Ile, and Gibraltar Carlson High School hockey teams.

Adjacent is the Kennedy Outdoor Aquatic Center, a 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m²) pool and water park that opened in 2005. The facility includes a 25-meter, 8-lane competitive pool with two diving boards, a 15-meter lap pool, a waterslide with separate splash area, and a 7,000-square-foot (650 m²) leisure pool.

The city has 200 acres (0.81 km²) of parks, including 22 operated by the city and 6 at schools. The city and Wayne County each also operate boat launches. The city of Trenton launch is located in Rotary Park, while the Wayne County launch is located at the south end of Elizabeth Park.

Along the Detroit River, Elizabeth Park, operated by Wayne County, is a popular destination for picnic-goers, fishermen, and boaters.

The city runs the Westfield Activities Center, which hosts meetings and houses the city's senior citizen program, the Teifer Building, and the Haas Park Building.

In the south of the city, is the Humbug Marsh Unit of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. This unit of the refuge is shared between Trenton and Gibraltar to the south. The refuge features the last natural shoreline on the Detroit River as well as old growth forest, marshland, swamps and savanna. White-tailed deer, red fox, coyotes, beavers, muskrat, and river otters all live in the Humbug Marsh Unit. The park is an important migratory bird stop and bird watching has become a popular activity there. The park also features an information centre, fishing pier, observation decks and picnic areas. Hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, bird watching, kayaking and fishing are all popular outdoor activities at the park, where there are many viewpoints of the Detroit River opening up to Lake Erie. The park consists of the mainland wetland and forest area as well as the small offshore island, Humbug Island, which contains old growth forest and bald eagle nesting sites.