Editing Wyandotte, Michigan (section)

==Business and industry==
[[File:Wyandotte 1896.jpg|thumb|250px|Wyandotte in 1896]]
An early figure was Captain [[John Baptiste Ford]], who used the salt to create [[soda ash]], which in turn was used to create [[plate glass]]. In 1893, he created [[Michigan Alkali Company]], which created [[baking soda]], soda ash and [[lye]]. The company, later renamed Wyandotte Chemicals Co., went on to create a variety of [[soap]]s and cleaners, eventually becoming part of [[BASF]] and expanding into the BASF industrial complex.

Ward also help create Wyandotte's [[shipbuilding]] role, which existed from the 1870s into the 1920s. During that time, a wide variety of boats were created along Wyandotte's riverbank, from [[steamboat|steamers]] and [[tugboat|tugs]] to huge [[ferry|ferries]]. In 1873, Ward's Wyandotte Iron Ship Building Works built the nation's earliest steel-hulled vessel, a tugboat called the Sport.<ref name="marker">{{cite web|title=America's First Bessemer Steel Mill|url=http://www.michmarkers.com/startup.asp?startpage=S0158.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130104013104/http://www.michmarkers.com/startup.asp?startpage=S0158.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=January 4, 2013|access-date=2009-01-06}}</ref> This shipbuilding industry was immortalized in 1942 in the painting of several murals which still exist today in the auditorium of Theodore Roosevelt High School.

Beginning in the 1920s Wyandotte was a major source of toy production, with the [[All Metal Products Company]] founded in 1920 and located in Wyandotte on Sycamore Street between 14th and 15th streets. From the 1920s until the 1950s the company, under the name "[[Wyandotte Toys]]", was the largest manufacturer of toy guns and pistols in the US, producing a wide variety of [[pop gun]]s, clicker pistols, dart guns, [[cap gun]]s and a variety of plastic pistols. The company also produced a wide range of toy airplanes and other vehicles by pressing scrap metal obtained from local automobile factories. The company's motto was "Wyandotte Toys Are Good and Safe." In the early 1950s the company moved to [[Ohio]], and it was bought out by [[Louis Marx and Company]] three years later.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.angelfire.com/mi/WYMUSEUM/page4.html|title=The Archives & Collections|access-date=2009-01-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050120180542/http://www.angelfire.com/mi/WYMUSEUM/page4.html|archive-date=January 20, 2005}}</ref>

Bishop Park, located on the riverfront north of downtown, once had a dock to board the Boblo Boat ferry to [[Boblo Island]].

Today, much of the remaining industry is minor, with a notable exception being [[BASF]] Wyandotte on the city's north riverfront.

In July 2002, three workers at an [[Atofina]] plant in neighboring Riverview were killed when a rail car leaked a colorless gas called [[methyl mercaptan]].  The gas exploded into flames and led to the [[emergency evacuation]] of 3,100 area residents, including some Wyandotte citizens.

The city is served by three newspapers: the regional ''[[Detroit Free Press]]'' and ''[[The Detroit News]]''; as well as ''[[The News-Herald (Southgate, Michigan)|The News-Herald]]'', which is a more local paper serving the Downriver communities and has roots tracing back to two former newspapers that were published in Wyandotte. Wyandotte is also in [[Media in Detroit|the Detroit radio and television markets]].