CRIME CRAWL · PATH 03
Follow the geography that connected legal Canadian liquor to an illegal Detroit market. This first route shows a documented historical system—not one bootlegger, one shipment or one reconstructed chase.
ROUTE NOTICE · THE CONNECTING LINE EXPLAINS THE MARKET’S GENERAL MOVEMENT. IT DOES NOT CLAIM THAT ONE PERSON OR SHIPMENT FOLLOWED THESE FOUR STOPS.
FOUNDATION ROUTE · 1917–1933
The narrow river border helped make Detroit a major Prohibition entry point. The route stays at city scale wherever the record does not support a precise dock, road, building or sequence.
WINDSOR & THE CANADIAN SHORE · GENERAL AREA
Alcohol remained legally available across the international border while Michigan and then the United States prohibited its sale and transportation. That nearby supply created opportunity.
DOCUMENTED REGIONAL START · NO BUSINESS OR WAREHOUSE PIN CLAIMED
DETROIT RIVER · MULTIPLE POSSIBLE CROSSINGS
Rumrunners crossed the river and contended with customs officers and other law enforcement. Boats, automobiles and winter conditions appear throughout the larger historical record, but this page assigns no single crossing to a particular shipment.
DOCUMENTED BORDER PATTERN · NO INVENTED COURSE
DETROIT WATERFRONT · CITYWIDE CONTEXT
Once liquor reached the Detroit side, it entered a shifting network of transfer, concealment and transportation. Exact docks and handoffs varied; none is presented here without a case-specific source.
DOCUMENTED MARKET STAGE · EXACT LANDING POINT WITHHELD
DETROIT NEIGHBORHOODS · BLIND PIGS & OTHER OUTLETS
Smuggled alcohol moved into an illegal city market that included speakeasies known locally as blind pigs. Enforcement, bribery, hijacking and violence surrounded parts of that market, but no single establishment is accused by this general route.
DOCUMENTED CITYWIDE END STAGE · NO UNVERIFIED ADDRESS
SOURCE TRAIL
The historical foundation is supported by the Detroit Historical Society’s account of Michigan Prohibition and Detroit rum-running. It records rumrunners crossing the Detroit River and liquor reaching blind pigs across the city. OPEN PROHIBITION RESEARCH NOTES →
HOW THIS ROOM CAN GROW
Later additions can follow a documented crime scene, pursuit, police response or connected series of locations. Each future route must earn every pin and every connecting line from its sources before it appears here.
OPEN THE 1943 DETROIT ROUTE →CONTINUE IN THIS CATEGORY