Bloody Run Creek

The prettiest stream on the grounds carries one of the bloodiest names in Detroit. Originally Parent’s Creek, it was rechristened “Bloody Run” after July 31, 1763, when Chief Pontiac’s forces ambushed British troops here during Pontiac’s War, killing Captain Dalzell and some 160 of his men — the water, the story goes, ran red. Today the creek winds quietly through Elmwood, and this is the only place in Detroit where you can still see it above ground.

Two and a half centuries of history in one babbling little stream — a genuine 1763 battlefield hiding inside a cemetery. On our list.