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History · Detour Township

Detour Township’s post office opened in 1856, and 11% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1964 on and the census since 1900.

1856first post office
0on the National Register
11%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Detour Township began

When was Detour Township founded?

1856

The Detour Township post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Detour (1856) and Schlesser (1892), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 880 in 19002020 census: 671170 years
Founding year: the first Detour Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Detour Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Detour Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Detour Township, and 1 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Detour Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Detour Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Detour
1856–1961
Schlesser
1892–1902
De Tour Village
1961–today
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
De Tour Village
Gone or out of use
Schlesser Post Officepost office
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Detour Township
Bob HillLittleMaple GroveRiverviewSacred Heart

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Detour Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Detour Township.

Read it all →

The place was originally an Ojibwe settlement. It was connected with the fur trade and over time it came to have a large Metis population. Over time the Metis inhabitants were redefined as being French-Canadian.

The area was organized in 1850 as Warren Township, named after Ebenezer Warren, the first postmaster of the township. The settlement was called Warrenville on an 1848 map. The name was changed to Detour in 1856 when a new postmaster, Henry A. Williams, assumed office. It incorporated as a village in 1899. The spelling was changed to "DeTour" in 1953 and the post office was renamed "DeTour Village" in 1961.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Detour Township, 1856 to 1964

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1856Post officeThe Detour post office opens
  3. 1892Post officeThe Schlesser post office opens
  4. 1897Born hereAngus Goetz is born here
  5. 20th century
  6. 1902Post officeThe Schlesser post office closes
  7. 1961Post officeThe Detour post office closes
  8. 1961Post officeThe De Tour Village post office opens
  9. 1964On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Detour Township, decade by decade

Today1 recent
De Tour Village2021De Tour Village
On the map

Detour Township on the map in 1964

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Detour Township.

Detour Township on the 1964 USGS map1964Goetzville sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Detour Township.

People over time

Detour Township, census by census

02004006008001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 880

Between 263 and 880 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Detour Township’s Wikipedia page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Raber TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townDrummond Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townClark Township1 historic placeB+

Questions about Detour Township’s history

What year was Detour Township founded?

The Detour Township post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.