After the Great Fire of 1805, Judge Augustus Woodward planned the rebuilding of Detroit around Campus Martius. It is named for the main square in Marietta, Ohio, the first capital of the Northwest Territory. The name is Latin for Field of Mars.
Detroit's coordinate system starts here, marked by a medallion in the stone walkway. Seven Mile Road is seven miles north, Eight Mile Road is eight miles north, and so on.
The new park was dedicated on November 19, 2004. It has a seasonal ice rink designed to look like Rockefeller Center's rink, but larger. A Civil War-era monument stands on Campus Martius.