For the City of Dearborn, and in Southeast Michigan in general, the car is king. In the previous century, in an attempt to make room for the new king, the trails once used by explorers and settlers, and originally hewn by lifetimes of moccasined feet, from the tribes of Potawatomi and their aboriginal ancestors, were paved over. In the modern age, this byproduct of progress, a double-edged sword that gives both shrieks of pleasure and pangs of guilt to many of us when motoring our cherished gas-guzzlers along the interstate at breakneck speeds, has begun to provoke a new age of conservation and a return to simpler things; namely, reclaiming areas such as old roads and rails for use instead by motorless pursuits, such as walking, hiking, skating and biking. The Rouge River Gateway Greenway Trail is one such effort, and the trail itself came into existence due to work initiated from organizations such as the Rouge River Gateway Partnership, the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan, and assorted other government and private interests, in an effort to connect green areas, such as trails and waterways, as well as to reclaim the Rouge River from the savages of industrialization and decay. We owe them our thanks.