Many of the early members of this community were from Michigan, thus the name Detroit. The first post office was established Oct. 16, 1891 with Vanness G. Dansforth first postmaster.

The original townsite was inundated in the summer of 1952 when the USCE finished Detroit Dam, a 463 foot high concrete gravity structure that impounds 340,000 acre feet of water. The Detroit community was relocated about half a mile NW of the original site on slight higher ground. It is now a popular recreation site.