Modern area tradition credits Woodward
(Telegraph Car Cruise on the left, with Cruisin’ Downriver on the right.)
Today, two distinct car cruise events line major Downriver routes during the summer months. The original event is the Fort Street Cruise, inaugurated in 2001 under the banner Cruisin’ Downriver, while the Telegraph Road Cruise began in 2005 under its original name of Telegraph Tomorrow Classic Car Cruise.
Both area events credit their originations to the Woodward Dream Cruise, which has been in place since 1995 and is credited as the biggest single-day classic car event in the world, bringing in over $56 million in tourism revenue annually. The organization of that event was in response to unofficial cruise events which had been taking place on Woodward since the 1940s, and aimed to quell traffic jams, accidents, and reduce the number of participants drinking & driving.
A lament over distance sparks a future legend
In 2000, Evelyn Cairns (at left), then the Lifestyles editor for The News-Herald, was paid a visit at work by her son, Glen. She was busy at the time, so Glen began talking to the director of advertising, Ray Woodrow.
Cairns’ son talked about how he wanted a local classic car cruise because the Woodward Dream Cruise was too far for him to drive his 1929 Ford Model A.
“My son said, ‘This is where it should be because these are the car people,’” Cairns would recall. “The Downriver people either worked in factories or their relatives worked in factories, and this is the car area of metro Detroit.”
That was the idea: give this largely blue-collar area that has long been intertwined with the auto industry a major event to show off with pride.
Cairns said she told Don Thurlow, then publisher of the newspaper, about the idea, and also brought it to the late Heinz Prechter, owner of the paper at the time.
Thurlow remembered recently what he thought of the cruise. At first, he didn’t take it too seriously, but he didn’t dismiss it. “Then, the more I thought about it, I thought that might be something we could do Downriver because it is kind of a contiguous community,” he said. “There’s a lot of car people down here, with the Trenton Engine Plant, the Ford Plant, Mazda a little bit further down.”
At the time, Thurlow met with Ed Clemente, who was president of the Southern Wayne County Chamber of Commerce and then was Democratic state representative from Lincoln Park from 2004-10. Even though neither is a car enthusiast, both were enthralled by the idea and brainstormed about how to pull it off.
“I think the first thing we decided was we had to pick a route before we talked to anybody,” Thurlow said. “It turns out, if you think about it, Fort Street is the perfect route.” It was then settled that the route would be on Fort between Southfield and Sibley roads.
Fort Street was perfect for several reasons, Thurlow said. It was centrally located Downriver, it was a state highway – so there was only one transportation entity to clear it with – and the speed limit increases just south of Sibley. For those driving older cars that overheat frequently, the higher velocity helps cool the engine.
“It doesn’t really matter who started the event. What matters is it’s still going on, which, to me, is a victory in itself for the area because we were sort of isolated.”
– ED CLEMENTE
Former president, S.W.C.C.C.
They met with classic car clubs, whose members all loved the idea. Clemente and Thurlow and some of the car club members went to city council meetings in the four cities and gave presentations. Soon, all cities were on board. The pair also met with police and fire chiefs to discuss how to best protect the attendees. Some police chiefs called their Oakland County counterparts for tips because they had experience with the annual Woodward Dream Cruise. The biggest issue for public safety was the overtime costs, which would have to be reimbursed.
Like Cairns’ son Glen, Clemente wanted to bring people together Downriver for a huge event. The Woodward Dream Cruise got a lot of attention and he felt some area media wrote off southern Wayne County as a place where nothing major, and positive, happens. “As a chamber guy, I was always a little bit more aware of how the Downriver area was portrayed in the media of southeast Michigan,” Clemente said. “My bigger issue, too, was we needed a signature event and the cruise is good for the summer.”
Thurlow and Clemente estimated about 200,000 people attended the first Cruisin’ Downriver in 2001. For the next several years, the event became an annual calling card on the last Saturday in June. It would receive its fair share of press and had many corporate sponsors during its initial run and, during its first years, was covered live on radio by WOMC-104.3 FM, then Metro Detroit’s well-known “oldies” station.
The News-Herald and Meijer were among the biggest sponsors, along with Rodgers Chevrolet, AT&T, the former Great Lakes Steel, as well as the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau. Other local sponsors through the years included Advantage One Credit Union, Acova Insurance Agency, and Checkers.
It’s now unofficial, but still happening
The last officially sponsored event happened in 2017. Beginning in 2018, due to increased expenses and lack of profit for each community along the route, the classic cars would still tour on an unofficial basis, keeping the date a tradition. A prolonged partial closure of I-75 Downriver in 2017-18 had much detour traffic utilize Fort Street from Detroit southward, adding to congestion. The event, now known as the Fort Street Cruise, is still observed today in modified form.
The next Fort Street Cruise is scheduled for Saturday, June 27, 2026 beginning at 9:00AM. The Lincoln Park Bandshell (3240 Ferris, east of Fort) will also have an all-day kickoff party on Friday, June 26th.
Telegraph Road Cruise has wider range
Originally the Telegraph Tomorrow Classic Car Cruise, it was named for the Telegraph Tomorrow Association that worked to improve and promote the U.S. 24 (Telegraph Road) corridor. The route runs from Puritan Road in Redford to Eureka Road in Taylor.
Spanning the communities of Taylor, Dearborn Heights, Dearborn and Redford Township, it is usually held on the fourth Saturday in July. Although it has never had an official sponsor or garnered radio coverage, local merchants in the Taylor area have been unofficial patrons of the annual event in the past, including Cavill’s Lounge and Lombardi’s.
The next Telegraph Cruise is scheduled for Saturday, July 25, 2026 beginning at 9:00AM.