County: Wayne (82)

Created from: Northwest Territory

Boundary finalized: 1822

Population: 1900 = 348,793  |  2020 = 1,793,561

Wayne County, which includes Detroit, was the sixth county in the Northwest Territory and was formed in 1796. It was the first county to be located within what would become the State of Michigan. The original county included land in Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin. The county was first subdivided into four townships in 1798 (Detroit, Hamtramck, Mackinaw and Sargent).

When railroads came to Detroit in the 1830's, the population of Wayne County was 6,781. By 1870 the population exceeded 100,000 and over one million people by the end of 1919. The peak population of Wayne County was  in 1970 with 2.7 million people. Today, the population is about 1.8 million people.

Due to the vast number of locations in the county, the Stations | Locations section of michiganrailroads.com divides the county into eight sections as well as a page for Industry and Manufacturing. Dearborn, Delray and Detroit comprise a single section "D".

Classification of Stations

When classifiing stations in Wayne County, a period around 1900-1920 is used. As an example, though the Delray community is now within the City of Detroit, most railroads arrived prior to this being in the city of Detroit. So we have used Delray as the primary location.