Fowling Warehouse | Bar games reach intense new heights in Hamtramck

Maybe they used to make car parts here, in this warehouse, on this pothole-littered road that cuts to the heart of Hamtramck, where workers have been sweating while churning out cars and car parts and countless other things for decades. Hard to guess what this particular space produced, but these days, the sweat spawns from a more recreational pursuit.

The original Fowling Warehouse occupies what appears was a long-vacated industrial space. A genius idea, when you get down to it, one that hatched when a handful of beer drinkers were tailgating at the 2001 Indy 500. Whatever football-lobbing game they were playing eventually evolved into Fowling – a game where players throw a football at a rack of bowling pins. The great drinking games stem from the simplest concepts.

Here was the formula: Football + Bowling + Bar = Fowling Warehouse

The warehouse in Hamtramck opened for play in 2014. Since then, Fowling Warehouse has expanded to locations in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids, as well as out-of-state venues in Indianapolis, Atlanta and Cincinnati. Hard to imagine any of them surpassing the sweet ambiance of Hamtramck, where an aging, hulking steel frame and concrete floor provide the shell. A couple dozen courts stretch side by side, leading to footballs and pins bouncing wildly. Players need to be on alert.

In between games, the bar serves up tons of beverages, including a nice selection of craft beers, IPAs, hard ciders and seltzers.  Players are invited to bring their own food. Show up and join open play for $12 or reserve a court for a group of any size for $120 for two hours. Just come ready to sweat, this ain’t Granddad’s bar game.

But it might be where he worked.

Crosswinds Marsh | Take a walk on the wild side at this man-made treasure in New Boston

You wonder what they grew here. Maybe it was corn. Pretty soon you forget about what might have been growing on this more than 1,000 acres of land because you’re hung up wondering how much lumber it would take to build 1.4 miles of boardwalk over man-made wetlands, and just then a swan swoops in and sends out a splash and suddenly the lumber-count doesn’t really matter either.

This is just pretty cool.

A few miles south of Detroit Metro Airport, tucked quietly in an already-quiet rural area of southwest Wayne County you’re wandering across Crosswinds Marsh, a man-made miracle that now serves as home to 240 species of birds and 40 species of mammals, not counting the humans who are wandering around wondering how they’d never heard of it before. Across the water you see another photo shoot. The local wedding/homecoming/graduation photographers love this place, almost as much as the muskrats do.

It's a funny thing, how this place came to be. Turns out, when developers destroy an acre of wetlands they’re required to replace it with 1.5 acres of wetlands. So when Detroit Metro Airport expanded back in the ‘90s, they swallowed up 200 acres of wetlands and bought up farmland to the south to compensate. They pumped in water to create a 300-acre marsh. Years later, here you are, standing on an endless boardwalk, marveling at the surroundings and half-wondering if Bird Guy with the binoculars is looking at blue herons or the prom queen over by the birch tree.  

Wrapped around the entire property is a 4.5-mile trail designated for horseback riding, and trails through the surrounding woods invite you to leave the boardwalk and explore. At every turn, you find yourself wondering how you’d never heard of this before.

It’s easy enough to spend hours roaming the grounds of Crosswinds Marsh. Eventually, as you find your way back to your car, you might even wonder again what used to be growing here. It probably wasn’t apples, do you think?

No matter what, it wasn’t as good as this.