The Headstone

There is a small town just south of Detroit, along the Detroit River called Ecorse. The French colonist that settled in the area in the late 18th century named the waterway that ran through it “Riviere Aux Echorches” which means “The River of the Barks” in English. It is rumored that the land is an ancient Native American burial ground. It is documented that the Natives harvested the bark from the trees that grew along the river for canoes. In the late 1950s when digging a foundation for an addition on their home, my grandfather uncovered human remains. The contractor told him that it was very common, and that he frequently uncovers remains in the area. In the mid 70’s my father hit a rock while digging a foundation for a shed in our back yard. I remember it being a very sizeable rock that was a solid gray and very smooth on one face. Aside from it obviously being a broken fragment of a larger stonework, the smoothed side clearly had “1717” etched into it. If turned in the opposite direction it appeared to spell “LILI” the “7” wasn’t slanted so it very well could have been “L”. My mother was convinced either way that it was a portion of headstone. My father decided if it was, or it wasn’t he wouldn’t be digging any further to find out. I remember most of the neighborhood stopping in to look at it and offer their opinions. It was the big excitement on our block that summer. In the end it became a permanent fixture in the front flower bed. We never knew if it was a headstone, an address, or lot marker but my parents felt it needed to be honored and left it in place when we moved several years later. There were a lot of strange occurrences that happened in that house, and I’m sure there still are.