Ecorse Township, Michigan
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Ecorse Township was a township in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan.
Although French explorers, missionaries, and traders frequented the area, the first existing record of a white settler owning land dates to 1776, when the Pottawatomi ceded a large tract of land to Pierre St. Cosme. One boundary of the ceded land came to be known as "St. Cosme Line" and later became part of the route of Southfield Road. In the late 1700s, many land grants in the area were awarded by the French crown. The first known permanent settler in what would become Ecorse Township was Pierre Michael Campau, who arrived in 1795. Although some records indicate settlers near the mouth of the Ecorse River as early as 1764.
The township was established on April 12, 1827 along with eight other townships by the Michigan Territorial Legislature in a major reorganization of Wayne County.
As initially formed, Ecorse Township consisted of 54 square miles (140 kmĀ²) including two small islands in the Detroit River on the east. The west boundary was Telegraph Road. The northern boundary was the south bank of the River Rouge. It extended south to what is now known as Pennsylvania Road, which was the boundary with Monguagon Township (from which Grosse Ile Township, Michigan and the cities of Trenton, Riverview and Gibraltar were created).