As a result of the passage of prohibition the Down River area which consists of the communities of Delray, Ecorse, Ford, Oakwood, River Rouge, Sloucm, Trenton and Wyandotte became the hub of Michigan's booming liquor trade. This once unremarkable area became the model for the excesses that would come to mark the roaring twenties and the failed efforts of the government to legislate the morality of it's citizens. Ecorse became the focal point of rumrunners and smugglers using the Detroit River to import their wares into the country from points abroad. Next to Ecorse Wyandotte was quite possibly the second most important point in the down river operation. This was due primarilly to the presence of the king of the downriver liquor industry the notorious down river beer baron Joe Tocco.
In the scheme of the liquor operations which used the down river communities, Wyandotte along with Ford served as export centers for the liquor landed on the docks in Ecorse. River Rouge claimed to have been free of bootleggers and their corruptive influence while public officials in the city frequently complained of having to deal with drunks, rumrunners and other liquor businessmen spilling over from other less desirable down river communities. Trenton on the other hand was known for it's public corruption and often worked hand in hand with many of the biggest rumrunners and bootleggers offering assistance and protection within the city limits for all. Upon the repeal of the noble experiment many of the down river communities tried to hide their role in the rise and fall of the bootlegged liquor industry of the '20s and early '30s by totally shutting out the past.
Today their are few remindes of the bootleggers and gangsters who once ran these areas, all that remains are a few news accounts of what is often referred to as a few isolated incidents but here we will try and return to the past and recreate what was the down river liquor run.
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