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Welcome to Mythic Detroit!

If you say the name "Detroit" to most people, they have very little idea there's more to the city than cars, Motown, houses that burst into flames on October 30, and (thanks to Mr. Marshall Mathers) the presence of a road named 8 Mile.

As you might expect, Mythic Detroit is intended to help rectify this situation. The goal is to document the odd, the whimsical, the "What the Hell?" factor of Detroit. Every city has it, and Detroit, a major metropolis during the first half of the 20th century, has at least its fair share. The mythology and legends of Detroit are less well-known than those of New York or London, but they exist nonetheless.

As Detroit continues its ongoing struggle of rebirth, these stories of its history are important because they capture the life and power which for now hides within it, and they remind people of what is possible. Detroit once stood astride the horizon like a mountain at the center of the world, a place from which new technology and vital pop culture sprang forth, and for a while even the fate of the free world depended upon it. Detroit is a sleeping giant, and Mythic Detroit is here to shout in its ear :

"Wake up, damn it, we need you!"

Mythmaking: Storytelling With Intent

This site exists to do two things:

1. gather stories of Detroit's greatness, and
2. refine and disseminate them, so people know the hidden heritage of the city.

Now, if either of those ideas appeal to you, you may be a Mythmaker.

News

April 3, 2011

The site is fully wikified, and I've slowly started tossing various stub pages up based on my previous waves of undigested research. Sign up for an account and join the fun!

January 7, 2011

The wikification of Mythic Detroit is well underway, with all major functionality (including the spiffy front page) up and running. Next step is conversion of the articles.

Top 10 Pages

• Dr. Orville Ward Owen
• Hazen Pingree
• Amusement Parks
• Aleister Crowley
• 339th Infantry
• Nain Rouge
• Voodoo Murders
• Etta Wriedt
• SnakeGoddess
• Purple Gang

How To Help

If you want to join our happy band of Mythmakers, sign up for an account, and take a whack at any of the stuff below:

• Go take a look at the list of Online Sources and see if there's anything we should add a page about.
• Check out the stub pages and work on fleshing one of them out.
• Find an article you like and do some further research to add to the supply of gobsmackage. Unlike Wikipedia, we're happy to host archival documents, original research, whatever you can toss on the pile.
• Taking inspiration from one of the stories on this site, create some art, a short story, a media sensation, or what have you, and then add it to the site, or post it online and add a link to it under the Sources section of the appropriate page.
• If you're really feeling enterprising, go out and find something nobody's heard of for 20, 50, or 100 years and add a new page. There are huge holes in the timeline, particularly African American history in the city, secrets of the post-riot era, and anything that happened before the French got here.