Detroit River Story Lab
The University of Michigan’s Detroit River Story Lab is an interdisciplinary, grant-funded initiative that partners with regional organizations to reconnect communities with the river and its stories. Through collaborative research, education, and engagement projects, our partnerships amplify marginalized voices and foreground the role of the river and its shores as sites of connection, stewardship, and healing.
Featured News
- Students Sail the Detroit River
Detroit! Meaning strait in French, a narrow passage of water linking two larger areas of water. Detroit! Take a moment and think about that. The land area you live on is named after the watermark of the area. In context… Read more: Students Sail the Detroit River - Operation Manoomin: Restoring Wild Rice along the Detroit River
Manoomin (mah-NOO-mehn) or wild rice was once very common in coastal marshes along the Detroit River and has always been sacred to First Nations. As Detroit became settled by Europeans, the river’s shoreline hardened with concrete breakwaters and steel sheet… Read more: Operation Manoomin: Restoring Wild Rice along the Detroit River - Amid Heavy Industry, Canada’s Newest (and Tiniest) National Park
The creation of an urban national park on an unprepossessing parcel of land in the automaking hub of Windsor, Ontario, is also meant to serve as an act of Indigenous reconciliation. - DNR Summer Youth Program opens up new worlds
Under a powder-blue sky dotted with cotton-like clouds, the four wader-clad students walked near the lake’s edge, slowly gliding their nets attached to tall wooden poles back and forth beneath the water’s surface and through a smattering of green and… Read more: DNR Summer Youth Program opens up new worlds - Michigan, Canada officially connected by North America’s longest cable-stayed bridge
It’s not open yet, but the Gordie Howe International Bridge has just become an official border crossing, connecting Michigan and Canada by the largest cable-stayed bridge in all of North America. It’s the latest milestone in the Bridge’s ongoing construction… Read more: Michigan, Canada officially connected by North America’s longest cable-stayed bridge - Students from Belle Isle program build their own boat. Now they look to sail it
Eight middle school students returned to Belle Isle this summer for another year of sailing lessons. But a few months ago, before they hit the water, those students learned a new lesson: how to build a boat. The Detroit Community… Read more: Students from Belle Isle program build their own boat. Now they look to sail it
