The Detroit History Podcast

30/12/2025

Was scrolling through the National Archives on my day off this morning and found this wonderful short documentary about the Great Lakes that was produced by Ford Motor Company in 1925. Decided to upgrade it to 4K and add some music to match the tone. It is fair use now since 100 years have passed. Some pretty cool shots here of the Great Lakes in their natural beauty, but also some shots of a time long gone on the lakes, when copper and iron mining were King. Check it out below. - Managing Editor Eric Kiska.

The Great Lakes I was a Ford Motor Company short documentary filmed in 1925 that is now fair use under copyright law since 100 years have passed. I have upgr...

19/12/2025

11/12/2025

On this Firelake Chat, Managing Editor Eric Kiska interviews Cookie and Tig from the Detroit Roller Derby to find out how the punk rock crew of roller derby-ists began in 2005. Several of the skaters were also featured in the 2009 Drew Barrymore film "Whip It" starring Elliot Page. They started at a small rink and eventually graduated to selling out events at Detroit's Masonic Temple, but the sport of roller derby goes way beyond 2005, and originally began in a fellow Midwest city.

On this Firelake Chat, Eric interviews Cookie and Tig from the Detroit Roller Derby to find out how the punk rock crew of roller derby-ists began in 2005. Se...

10/11/2025

50 years ago today the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk with all hands. Managing Editor Eric Kiska made a YouTube documentary last year on the subject, and he also explores what life was like on the Fitz, and the Great Lakes shipping industry. Check it out below.

In the second episode of Tales of the Great Lakes, Eric tells the story of the wreck of the Great Lakes freighter the "Edmund Fitzgerald." The wreck is still...

07/09/2025

In my latest Firelake Chat, I interview documentary filmmaker Andrew Templeton who is screening his new film "1969: Killers, Freaks, and Radicals," a movie that covers "The Michigan Murders" (aka The Co-Ed Killings) in the late 60s. Up to today, most have attributed the crimes to one lone serial killer named John Norman Collins, but Templeton (and interviewees) propose that others may have been involved after investigating the case.

Templeton brings us through what Michiganders were feeling like in the late 60s as the homicides unfolded, and how the crimes (along with everything else going on in the late 60s) created a feeling of mayhem in the region. We also discuss how the police made several mishaps that gave Collins time to destroy evidence, and how ignorance towards the serial killer psychological profile led to Collins (wrongly) being an unlikely suspect.
- Managing Editor Eric Kiska

1969: Killer's Freaks, and Radicals will be screening this Friday at the Birmingham 8 for the Royal Starr Film Festival, and this Saturday at the Soo Theater in Sault Saint Marie for the Soo Film Festival.

Find all future screenings for "1969: Killer's, Freaks, and Radicals" here: https://www.1969doc.com/

And find the trailer for "1969: Killer's, Freaks, and Radicals" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFvWqc8QdRk&t=1s&ab_channel=1969%3AKillers%2CFreaks%2CandRadicals

In the latest Firelake Chat, Eric interviews documentary filmmaker Andrew Templeton who is screening his new film "1969: Killers, Freaks, and Radicals," a mo...

25/08/2025

In the second part of my YouTube documentary on the dark history of Mission Point on Mackinac Island, I investigate the alleged cult that was invited to Mackinac Island by Governor Murray Van Wagoner in the 1940s. The group's name was Moral Re-Armament (the MRA), and was led by a charismatic Lutheran evangelical leader from Allentown, Pennsylvania named Frank Buchman. Buchman believed that four absolutes: absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love could re-arm the world morally. He also preached Christian fascist sentiment. Actress Glenn Close, who grew up in the movement, would later accuse the group of being a cult.

The MRA tried to buy the Island House Hotel on Mackinac Island, but after several fights with the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, they ended up buying land on the Mission Point side of the island to build a conference/training center, theatre, and film studio. This conference and training center ended up being turned into Mackinac College (and later, Mission Point Resort) in the late 60s, where the legend of "Harvey the Ghost" originates. Harvey the Ghost is an urban legend that islanders got wrong though, and in the second part of this video, I will reveal the real identity behind the Mackinac College student turned “ghost.” Watch below. - Managing Editor Eric Kiska.

In the tenth Tales of the Great Lakes, I investigate the alleged cult that was invited to Mackinac Island by Governor Murray Van Wagoner in the 1940s. The gr...

25/08/2025

In this two part Tales of the Great Lakes, I tell the dark history of Mission Point on Mackinac Island. The first part of this documentary covers the pre-colonial history, colonial history, and 19th century history of Mackinac Island (focusing on the Mission Point side) when there was a Native American Boarding School on the island. In this history, I investigate how Anglo-Americans dispossessed Native Americans of their land in Northern Michigan and threw their kids into a "re-education school." I also discuss how Mission Point was established as a protestant mission, and the son of a protestant missionary became a U.S. Senator and successfully helped Mackinac Island become the second National Park in American history before it was later given back to the state. Watch below. - Managing Editor Eric Kiska

In the ninth Tales of the Great Lakes, I tell the early dark history of Mission Point on Mackinac Island. This documentary covers the pre-colonial history, c...

12/08/2025

Did you know that for a short period of time before the auto industry, Detroit’s biggest industry was bone charcoal and bone fertilizer made from buffalo bones? A company called Michigan Carbon Works once used 13% of the disregarded buffalo bones from the prairies to turn a profit.

26/07/2025

On the 250th anniversary of the first post office and the first American postal system being established, I look into how this government institution started and helped create the country we live in by making an informed electorate and improving literacy rates. As a USPS mail carrier myself: I also look at the reasons the post office is hurting today, why it's in so much debt, and why service has declined. - Managing Editor Eric Kiska.

On the 250th anniversary of the first post office and the first American postal system being established, I look into how this government institution started...

29/06/2025

From the creators of The Detroit History Podcast comes a documentary series about the power of local newspapers, and the last 60 years of the Detroit Free Press. Through this lens, one can view a story of the unique history of Detroit, and how the newspaper that covered the city got bloody reporting it, and won Pulitzer Prizes. Coming soon to the Firelake Media YouTube channel. Watch the teaser trailer here:

16/06/2025

What could this mean for the Detroit Free Press? We’re currently working on a documentary on the history of the Free Press and will be covering this.

The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News’ joint operating agreement combined the two newspapers’ business operations since 1989.